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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION 



THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION 

BY 

THOMAS J. McEVOY 



Price, 'Uwo dollars 



T. J. McEVOY, Publisher 

Flatbush and Third Aves. 

Brooklyn, N. Y. 

1911 






6 



McEVOY PEDAGOGICAL SERIES. 



McEvoy's Epitome op History and 

Principles op Education $1.00 

McEvoy's Methods in Education 1.50 

McEvoy's Science op Education 2.00 

McEvoy's Answers in Methods op 

Teaching (Four Books) 6.00 

McEvoy's Answers in School Manage- 
ment 1.50 

McEvoy's Answers in History and 
Principles op Education (in prepara- 
tion) 



Copyright, 1907, by Thomas J. McEvoy. 
Copyright, 1911, by Thomas J. McEvoy. 



PULIS PRINTING COMPANY, 
BROOKLYN, N. Y. 



>?■■ 

£ci.A3I207!< 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The; Meaning of Education 3 

II. Aspects of Education. 20 

III. The Course of Study 36 

IV. Methods of Teaching 49 

V. General Method 54 

VI. Principles of Education 63 

VII. Instinct and Habit 86 

VIII. Definitions in Psychology 98 

IX. Adolescence . 105 

X. Meaning of Terms 120 

XL Special Problems in Education 130 

XII. School Administration 148 

XIII. Approved Answers 180 

XIV. Questions and Typical Answers 194 

XV. Sets of Questions Without Answers. . . 310 

XVI. Questions for Written Answers 314 

Index 323 



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PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. 



Classification is the aim of this book. The va- 
rious aspects of education are fully discussed and 
many lines of investigation are adequately treated 
in other books, but not enough authoritative work 
has been done to bring the leading opinions to- 
gether in one satisfactory conception of all that 
education implies. This second edition is a con- 
tribution to the desired harmonization of thought. 

The terms science of education and art of edu- 
cation have been commonly used as synonyms for 
theory and practice. But science and theory are 
not synonymous ; science connotes an acceptable 
classification of data or facts, while theory may 
still remain within the realm of doubt. Art means 
aptness or skill in the use of facts scientifically 
classified. In this book the science of education in- 
cludes both science and art as here defined, because 
the validity of formal classification cannot be estab- 
lished without the test of direct application in 
teaching. Failure to apply as in classroom work is 
the most serious defect in pedagogical study. 

No argument except the book as a whole is 
offered to prove that there is a science of educa- 
tion, nor is any apology made for the effort to help 
students in the logical organization of thought. 
One safe conclusion is given under ? each topic for 
the purpose of having a viewpoint for acceptance 



A r- flo^_ 



or modification after due investigation and reflec- 
tion. Lazy students may use the book as a short 
cut, but it is hoped that the material will serve as 
a stimulus to diligent minds. 

The nature of this work necessarily means obli- 
gation to many associates, authors and publishers. 
Grateful acknowledgment is expressed for every 
source of help in making this Science of Educa- 
tion. 



THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION 



CHAPTER I 

THE MEANING OF EDUCATION 

i. A clear definition of education should be the 
first attainment in the study of the science of edu- 
cation. It may not be possible to find or to con- 
struct a definition which is acceptable to all edu- 
cators, but it is within our power to establish a 
standard of thought in harmony with those who are 
competent to pass judgment upon such matters. 
This chapter has material enough to enable stu- 
dents to reach a safe conclusion. 

Meaning from Etymology 

2. The word education is derived from the 
Latin cducare, to rear or nourish, and ednccre, to lead 
forth or draw out. This derivation is suggestive 
but it does not furnish an adequate definition. The 
present use of the term expresses the original mean- 
ing enlarged by the cumulative viewpoints of ad- 
vancing civilization. 

Meaning from History of Education 

3. Oriental nations. — For the aims, purposes 
or conceptions of education in oriental nations, see 

3 



4 The Science of Education 

McEvoy's Epitome of History and Principles of Edu- 
cation, pages 6 to 25. Following is a summary: 

China: Success in this life. 

India: Preparation for future life. 

Phoenicia: Commercial supremacy. 

Persia: Service to the state. 

Egypt : Supremacy of priests. 

Israel: Rehabilitation of the nation. 

4. Ideals in western civilization. — Seven valu- 
able conceptions of education are found in the his- 
tory of the western nations. These conceptions 
are spoken of as ideals because they express so 
much that is worthy of acceptance. Following are 
the respective ideals: 

Culture — Athens. 

Efficiency — Rome. 

Discipline — Middle Ages, humanists, Locke. 

Knowledge — Comenius, Bacon and others. 

Development — Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Froebel. 

Character — Herbart. 

Citizenship — Horace Mann, John Dewey. 

5. Our use of these ideals. — Destructive criti- 
cism might show the inadequacy of each of these 
ideals as understood by the people who used them 
in the line of historic development of education, 
but an effort to interpret them as positive contribu- 
tion is more in harmony with the trend of scholarly 
research. Education itself is constructive; and 
surely the triumph of modern classification is not 
lessened by giving due credit for achievements of 
the past. 

In attempting to make a brief exposition or a 



The Meaning of Education 5 

satisfactory definition of education, what points 
are serviceable in an outline? Or if we are asked 
to tell specifically what aims should be in mind as 
successful teachers carry on their daily work„ we 
may turn at once to the seven ideals that stand 
for the best in more than two thousand years of 
human development. It is permissible, of course, 
to argue that any one, such as character, includes 
the other six, but it is conducive to breadth and 
organization of thought to show that each of the 
seven is a worthy element in effectual education. 

6. Scope of education enlarged. — The history 
of mental movements prior to the great renaissance 
is the province of history and principles of educa- 
tion, but attention should be directed here to the 
scope of education before the sixteenth century. 

Under culture as an ideal in Athens, both theory 
and practice became definite enough to make edu- 
cation synonymous with the welfare of the people. 
A theory of education is found in Plato's books, 
Republic and Laws, and in the writings of Aristotle ; 
an elementary course of study, known as Music and 
Gymnastics, was formulated; and methods of 
teaching received permanent contributions, the 
maieutic method of Socrates and the deductive 
method of Aristotle. Plato's theory of ideas and 
Aristotle's discussion of the inductive method de- 
serve special consideration. 

Efficiency was the Roman ideal. Organization 
was made the dominant characteristic in home, 
school and state. The relation of practical results 
to definite aim and procedure still suggests Roman 



6 The Science of Education 

theory and application. Compare modern voca- 
tional training. 

The Middle Ages exalted discipline as an ideal. 
The work of preserving education at all was a dif- 
ficult task in that formative period, but the ideal 
was sustained and the organization of education as 
an institution was strongly established. The mo- 
nastic course of study, The Seven Liberal Arts, 
guided instruction for a thousand years; universi- 
ties were established with faculties in Law, Medi- 
cine, Philosophy and Theology; and the early 
years of scholasticism perfected the syllogism as 
a method of teaching. 

7. Realism in modern education. — The six- 
teenth century was characterized by realism in ed- 
ucation. That large tendency favored the vitaliz- 
ing of all education by interpreting the lives of the 
Greeks and Romans, by using French and German, 
and by studying matter directly related to life. 
See Epitome, page 132. 

8. Innovation. — The changes suggested by 
realism caused the seventeenth century to be 
known as the period of the innovators. Note the 
continued effort to adjustment in mental and physi- 
cal life. See Epitome, page 148. 

9. Naturalism. — The eighteenth century tried 
to reconcile educational theory and practice with 
external physical nature and the nature of children. 
See Epitome, page 172. 

10. Psychological, scientific, and sociological 
tendencies. — These three tendencies are strong in 
modern education. By some, they are called prod- 



The Meaning of Education 7 

ucts of evolution in education ; by others, they are 
treated as phases of an eclectic view of education. 
We may use the three terms to characterize ap- 
proved efforts to make education satisfy the needs 
of mankind. The historic development of each is 
briefly given. 

Naturalism directed attention to the laws of the 
physical world and the inherent characteristics of 
children. Direct application was evidenced in the 
books of Rousseau and the teaching of Pestalozzi 
and Froebel. The psychological interpretation of 
facts and conditions was Herbart's contribution to 
education ; and the immediate result was improve- 
ment in methods of teaching. Recall general 
method or formal steps of instruction. 

The scientific movement affected subject-matter, 
thus modifying courses of study. Spencer's Edu- 
cation, representative of this tendency, affected 
methods of teaching as well as subject-matter. 

The sociological movement necessitated institu- 
tional application. Compare Butler's definition of 
education in section 68. 

Meaning from Definitions of Education 

11. Aristotle. The true aim of education is 
the attainment of happiness through perfect virtue. 

12. Bagley. The process by means of which 
the individual acquires experiences that will func- 
tion in rendering more efficient his future action. 

13. Baldwin. How to make the most of one's 
self, is not this the purpose and problem of educa- 



8 The Science of Education 

tion? Education in its broadest sense means de- 
velopment. It is the evolution of every human 
power. 

14. Brooks. The true object of education is 
the perfection of the individual. 

15. Brumbaugh. The effort of society to im- 
press its ideals upon the thought and activity of the 
young. 

16. Compayre. Education is the sum of the 
reflective efforts by which we aid nature in the de- 
velopment of the physical, intellectual, and moral 
faculties of man, in view of his perfection, his hap- 
piness, and his social destination. 

17. Comenius. Education is the development 
of the whole man. 

18. Davidson. Conscious evolution. 

19. Denzel. Education is the harmonious de- 
velopment of the physical, intellectual, and moral 
faculties. 

20. Dewey. Education is the process of re- 
making experience, giving it a more socialized 
value through increased individual experience, by 
giving the individual better control over his own 
powers. 

21. Emerson. The end of education is to train 
^way all impediment, and to leave only pure power. 

22. Fichte. Moral culture is pre-eminently 
the aim of all education. 

23. Froebel. Education shall be, essentially, 
a work of liberty and spontaneity. 

24. Froebel. The object of education is the 



The Meaning of Education 9 

realization of a faithful, pure, inviolate, and hence 
holy life. 

25. Asa Gray. To learn how to observe and 
how to distinguish things correctly is the greater 
part of education. 

26. Hamilton. The primary principle of edu- 
cation is the determination of the pupil to self- 
activity. 

27. Herbart. The development of moral char- 
acter. 

28. Herbart. The end of education is to pro- 
duce a well-balanced and many-sided interest. 

29. Hewitt. The leading out and training of 
all the powers whose germs the child possesses at 
birth. 

30. James. To make useful habits automatic. 

31. James. Education is the organization of 
acquired habits of action such as will fit the individ- 
ual to his physical and social environment. 

32. Jevons. The true view of education is to 
regard it as a course of training. The youth in a 
gymnasium practises upon the horizontal bar, in 
order to develop his muscular powers generally; 
he does not intend to go on posturing upon hori- 
zontal bars all through life. School is a place where 
the mental fibres are to be exercised, trained, ex- 
panded, developed and strengthened. — In Mind, pp. 
197-207, No. VI.,. April, 1877. 

33. Joly. Education is the sum of the efforts, 
whose purpose is to give to man the complete pos- 
session and correct use of his different faculties. 



io The Science of Education 

34. Kant. Education is the development in 
man of all the perfection which his nature permits. 

35. Keith. The change in the sequence or the 
character of one's mental activities. 

36. Locke. To form a perfect gentleman. 

37. Locke. The attainment of a sound mind in 
a sound body is the end of education. 

38. Marion. Education is the sum of the in- 
tentional actions, by means of which man attempts 
to raise his fellow man to perfection. 

39. James Mill. The aim of education is to 
render the individual, as much as possible, an in- 
strument of happiness to himself, and, next, to 
other beings. 

40. John Stuart Mill. Education includes 
whatever we do for ourselves and whatever is done 
for us by others, for the express purpose of bring- 
ing us nearer to the perfection of our nature. 

41. Milton. A complete and generous educa- 
tion fits a man to perform justly, skilfully, and mag- 
nanimously all the offices, both public and private, 
of peace and war. 

42. Montaigne. Education is the art of form- 
ing men, not specialists. 

43. Niemeier. Education is at once the art 
and the science of guiding the young and of putting 
them in a condition, by the aid of instruction, 
through the power of emulation and good example, 
to attain the triple end assigned to man by his re- 
ligious, social, and national destination. 

44. Orcutt. Education is not the storing of 
knowledge, but the development of power. 



The Meaning of Education ii 

45. Page. The conclusions of the honest and 
intelligent inquirer after the truth in this matter, 
will be something like the following: — That educa- 
tion (from c and duco, to lead forth) is develop- 
ment; that it is not instruction merely — knowl- 
edge, facts, rules — communicated by the teacher, 
but it is discipline, it is a waking up of the mind, a 
growth of the mind, — growth by a healthy assimi- 
lation of wholesome aliment. It is an inspiring of 
the mind with a thirst for knowledge, growth, en- 
largement, — and then a disciplining of its powers 
so far that it can go on to educate itself. It is the 
arousing of the child's mind to think, without think- 
ing for it; it is the awakening of its powers to ob- 
serve, to remember, to reflect, to combine. It is not 
a cultivation of the memory to the neglect of every- 
thing else; but it is a calling forth of all the facul- 
ties into harmonious action. If to possess facts 
simply is education, then an encyclopaedia is bet- 
ter educated than a man. — Theory and Practice of 
Teaching. 

46. Parker. The realization of all the possibil- 
ities of human growth and development. 

47. Parker. The end of education is com- 
munity life. 

48. Payne. Comprehends all the influences 
which operate on the human being, stimulating his 
faculties to action, forming his habits, moulding his 
character, and making him what he is. 

49. Pestalozzi. The natural, progressive, and 
systematic development of all the powers and facul- 
ties of the human being. 



12 The Science of Education 

50. Plato. To give to the body and to the soul 
all the beauty and all the perfection of which they 
are capable. 

51. Raab. Education, in its broadest sense, 
seems to be a full, perfect discipline not only of the 
mental and moral powers, but of the physical as 
well. 

52. Roark. Right education is such a prepara- 
tion of the individual, in physical, intellectual and 
moral capacities, as will enable him to secure the 
highest enjoyment from their use, here and here- 
after. 

53. Rosenkranz. Education is the influencing 
of man by man, and it has for its end to lead him to 
actualize himself through his own efforts. . . . 
It is the nature of education only to assist in the 
producing of that which the subject would strive 
most earnestly to develop for himself if he had a 
clear idea of himself . . . Man, therefore, is 
the only fit subject for education. We often speak, 
it is true, of the education of plants and animals; 
but even when we do so, we apply, unconsciously, 
perhaps, other expressions, as 'raising' and 'train- 
ing,' in order to distinguish these. . . . Educa- 
tion cannot create: it can only help to develop to 
reality the previously existent possibility: it can 
only help to bring forth to light the hidden life. — 
Pedagogics as a System, 7-22, ed. 1872. 

54. Rousseau. Education is the art of bring- 
ing up children and of forming men. 

55. Ruskin. Advancement in life. 



The Meaning of Education 13 

56. Salisbury. A process of gradual unfold- 
ment, the opening out of all the soul's powers. 

57. Scott. Acquiring habits of firm and assid- 
uous application, and gaining the art of controlling, 
directing, and concentrating the powers of the mind 
for earnest investigations. 

58. Simon. The process by which one mind 
forms another mind, and one heart another heart. 

59. Stein. Education is the harmonious and 
equable evolution of the human faculties, by a 
method founded upon the nature of the mind, for 
developing all the faculties of the soul, for stirring 
up and nourishing all the principles of life, while 
shunning all one-sided culture and taking account 
of the sentiments on which the strength and worth 
of men depend. 

60. Sully. Education seeks, by social stimu- 
lus, guidance, and control, to develop the natural 
powers of the child, so as to render him able and 
disposed to lead a hearty, happy, and morally 
worthy life. 

61. Thiry. The end of education is triple: (1) 
To develop the mental factulties, (2) to communi- 
cate knowledge, and (3) to mould character. 

62. Thorndike. The work of education is to 
make changes in human minds and bodies. 

63. Thorndike. To give boys and girls health 
in body and mind, information about the world of 
nature and men, worthy interests in knowledge and 
action, a multitude of habits of thought, feeling, 
and behavior, and ideals of efficiency, honor, duty, 
love and service. 



14 The Science of Education 

64. Tompkins. That power and versatility of 
thought and emotion which elevate life into truth 
and virtue. 

65. Ward. Education means the universal dis- 
tribution of extant knowledge. 

66. White. Education is any process or act 
which results in knowledge or power or skill. 

DEFINITIONS FOR INTENSIVE STUDY 

67. Eclectic conception of education. — An ac- 
ceptable definition of education is eclectic, i. e., a 
combination of the best features of all other defini- 
tions. Such a definition embodies the cumulative 
merits as merits are determined by modern needs. 
Study the following definitions, abstract the essen- 
tials, and then construct a definition satisfactory to 
yourself. If you consider one of these definitions 
adequate, prepare to defend that one. Can you 
show that sections 68 to 75, inclusive, give an 
eclectic conception of education embodying the best 
thought in all of the foregoing definitions? 

68. Adaptation to spiritual inheritance. — But- 
ler. If education cannot be identified with mere 
instruction, what is it? What does the term mean? 
I answer, it must mean a gradual adjustment to the 
spiritual possessions of the race. Those possessions 
are at least fivefold. The child is entitled to his 
scientific inheritance, to his literary inheritance, to 
his aesthetic inheritance, to his institutional inherit- 
ance and to his religious inheritance. 

69. Participation in social consciousness of the 



The Meaning of Education i$ 

race. — Dewey. The increasing participation of the 
individual in the social life of the race. All educa- 
tion proceeds by the participation of the individual, 
in the social consciousness of the race. . . . The 
school is a form of community life in which the child 
shares the inherited resources of the race, and uses 
his own powers for social ends. Education is, 
therefore,, a process of living and not a preparation 
for future living. 

70. Social fitness. — Harris, (a) The process 
by which the individual man lifts himself to the 
species, (b) The preparation of the individual for 
reciprocal union with society. 

71. Self-realization. — Home. Self-develop- 
ment through self-activity for self-hood and social 
service. 

72. Character and social efficiency. — Maxwell. 
What does "education for efficiency" mean? It 
does not mean that every man should be trained to 
be a soldier. True, the man who is well trained for 
the duties of peace is, in these days of scientific in- 
struments of destruction, well prepared for war; 
but military prowess can never become the ideal of 
education among a great industrial people. It does 
not mean merely that each citizen should be able to 
read the newspapers and magazines, so that he may 
be familiar with political discussions, and able to 
make an intelligent choice between candidates and 
policies. The imparting of such knowledge to each 
individual is essential in a democratic nation, but it 
falls far short of the education needed to secure the 
highest efficiency of each unit of society. Still less 



i6 The Science of Education 

does it mean that wretched travesty of education 
which would confine the work of the public schools 
to those exercises in reading, writing, and ciphering 
which will enable a boy or a girl, at the age of four- 
teen or earlier, to earn starvation wages in a store 
or factory. Education for efficiency means all of 
these things ; but it means much more. It means 
the development of each citizen, first as an individ- 
ual, and second as a member of society. It means 
bodies kept fit for service by appropriate exercise. 
It means that each student shall be taught to use 
his hands deftly, to observe accurately, to reason 
justly, to express himself clearly. It means that he 
shall learn "to live cleanly, happily, and helpfully, 
with those around him;" that he shall learn to co- 
operate with his fellows for far-reaching and far- 
distant ends ; that he shall learn the everlasting 
truth of the words uttered nearly two thousand 
years ago: "No man liveth to himeslf," and, "Bear 
ye one another's burdens." Such, I take it, is the 
goal of American education. — President's Address, 
N.E.A., 1904. 

73. Harmonization. — Monroe. The harmoni- 
zation of interest and effort. 

74. Complete living. — Spencer. Complete liv- 
ing is the end of education. We must not simply 
think but know what information will be useful in 
after-life. The activities, which constitute human 
life, may be classified in the order of their import- 
ance: (1) Direct self-preservation; (2) indirect 
self-preservation; (3) the rearing of children; (4) 



The Meaning of Education 17 

social demands and citizenship; (5) miscellaneous 
activities filling the leisure part of life. 

75. Meeting of the minds. — Woodrow Wil- 
son. Education is a process — a process of life, of 
development under a score of influences, chiefly 
personal. Education is not a process of instruction, 
but comes by the intimate daily contacts of im- 
mature minds with minds more mature and ex- 
perienced. 

For Study 

76. Interpretation. — The breadth suggested by 
the study of so many definitions presupposes con- 
siderable intensive study of the meaning of edu- 
cation. The attempt to interpret fifty definitions 
loses its disciplinary value if students are groping 
for a guiding thought. Better go at once to sec- 
tions 67 to 75 for a safe foundation, learn one defi- 
nition, such as Butler's, and then strengthen that 
conception by comparing it with other definitions, 
such as Spencer's. If vagueness accompanies the 
comparison, evidently the student is at the wrong 
end of the process of learning; he must go back 
to fundamental work. Thoughtful study of one 
book is recommended; later collateral reading will 
serve a purpose if needed for fixing impressions. 
But the one great danger is the tendency to choose 
striking expressions from many books for the pur- 
pose of combining those expressions. Don't do 
that ; mature scholarship cannot be deceived by 
sound. Try to get one definite idea clearly ex- 
pressed and then enlarge your chosen conception. 



i8 The Science of Education 

A safe foundation can be secured by using one 
or all of these books : 

Butler's The Meaning of Education. 
Home's Philosophy of Education. 
Spencer's Education. 

Test Questions 

77. Discuss happiness, perfection and power as 
aims in education. 

78. Define each of the seven ideals in western 
civilization. 

79. If you were asked to choose one of those 
seven ideals as a comprehensive aim or end, which 
one would you choose? Why? 

Mention five ways in which one day of your 
teaching satisfies that ideal. 

80. What does Butler mean by spiritual inherit- 
ance ? Illustrate each of the five kinds in high 
school work. (See Methods in Education, 18). 

81. What knowledge does Spencer consider of 
most worth ? Comment on his view of the rearing 
of children. 

82. Define social efficiency. 

83. What is the meaning of eclectic? Give its 
derivation. Quote or make an eclectic definition 
of education. 

84. Pythagoras made harmony the basis of his 
scheme of education. What modern author epito- 
mizes education by that term ? Why does he choose 
interest and effort? 

85. Write not more than two hundred words 



The Meaning of Education 19 

on the substance of the Introduction to Home's 
Philosophy of Education. 

86. Express in one line the essential thought in 
Wilson's definition in section 75. 

87. References. — These books are given to 
guide general reading, but no student is expected 
to try to master all of them. 

Bagley. Educative Process. 

Bain. Education as a Science. 

DeGarmo. Interest and Education. 

Dewey. School and Society. 

Eliot. Educational Reform. 

Froebel. Education of Man. 

Gordy. A Broader Elementary Education. 

Hanus. Educational Aims and Values. 

Harris. Psychologic Foundations of Education. 

Herbart. Outlines of Educational Doctrine. 

Hill. True Order of Studies. 

Hillis. A Man's Value to Society. 

Horne. The Psychological Principles of Education. 

Monroe. Brief Course in History of Education. 

O'Shea. Dynamic Factors in Education. 

O'Shea. Education as Adjustment. 

Pestalozzi. Leonard and Gertrude. 

Report of Committee of Fifteen. 

Report of Committee of Ten. 

Report of Committee of Twelve. 

Rousseau. Em He. 

Seeley. Elementary Pedagogy. 

Search. Ideal School. 

Tompkins. Philosophy of Education. 

Wilson. Pedagogues and Parents, 



CHAPTER II 
ASPECTS OF EDUCATION 

88. Bases. — Home's Philosophy of Education pre- 
sents a comprehensive discussion of education un- 
der five aspects: Biological, physiological, socio- 
logical, psychological, and philosophical. These as- 
pects are called phases or bases by some writers. 

89. Means of approach. — The general study of 
education may be approached through the history 
of education, the science of education, applied prin- 
ciples or practice of education, and the philosophy 
of education. 

90. Continuity of the process ; the school a social 
institution. — The classifications mentioned in 88 
and 89 are not indications of distinct processes in 
education ; they are rather convenient ways of con- 
sidering one large unity. All the agencies or fac- 
tors — the school, the home, the church, the voca- 
tion, and the state— are brought into harmony in 
producing the desired results. This thought is well 
expressed in section 91 by a quotation from Mac- 
Vannel's Syllabus of Philosophy of Education, p. 48. 

91. MacVannel quoted. — "The educative pro- 
cess is essentially continuous. The idea funda- 
mental to the process is the realization of the indi- 
vidual through his increasing participation in the 
knowledge, the interests and activities of social life. 

20 



Aspects of Education 21 

From the individual's earliest infancy this process 
of participation has been widening and deepening, 
and always to some degree under the direction and 
control of the expectations and demands of those 
who form the social enclosure of his life. Family life 
no matter how unorganized it may at first sight 
appear, saturates the child's mind, directs his ac- 
tivity and thus introduces some degree of order 
into his unregulated impulses. In the school is 
found a more highly organized factor in the pro- 
cess of mediating the fund of social interests and 
values and thus securing the social transformation 
of the individual. Yet while the school as a moral 
institution may perform its task more consciously 
or more systematically than the family or the other 
educative institutions, it cannot do so more inevi- 
tably or with more permanent or far-reaching effect. 
The entire environment of the individual as concen- 
trated in the great human institutions, the home, 
the school, the vocation, the state, and the church, 
is to be regarded fundamentally as a medium in 
which the educational process, as a unitary and con- 
tinuous thing, is organized and directed. The 
school, therefore, is that form of institutional life in 
which are concentrated those agencies and influ- 
ences through which society endeavors to reinforce 
the life of those who are to be its members with such 
forms of experience as make for effective member- 
ship in a social order." — Extension Syllabi, Series A. 
No. 12, Teachers College, Columbia University. 

92. Dewey quoted. — "I believe that the indi- 
vidual who is to be educated is a social individuual, 



22 The Science of Education 

and that society is an organic union of individuals. 
If we eliminate the social factor from the child we 
are left only with an abstraction; if we eliminate 
the individual factor from society, we are left only 
with an inert lifeless mass. Education, therefore, 
must begin with a psychological insight into the 
child's capacities, interests, and habits. It must be 
controlled at every point by reference to these same 
considerations. These powers, interests, and habits 
must be continually interpreted — we must know 
what they mean. They must be translated into 
terms of their social equivalents — into terms of 
what they are capable of in the way of social serv- 
ice." — Educational Creeds, p. 8. 

93. Gordy's criticism of Dewey. — "Now, in criti- 
cising this definition I do not wish to be understood 
as disagreeing with it. On the contrary, I wish at 
the outset to say that I regard it as asserting by 
implication a very important truth ; that the true 
interest of the individual and that of society are 
identical. My criticism of the definition is that it 
does not tell us in what the interests either of the 
individual or of society are to be found. To be told 
that the interests of the individual are the same as 
those of society tells me nothing unless I know what 
the interests of society are. To be told that the in- 
terests of society are the same as those of the in- 
dividual leaves me entirely in the dark unless I 
know what the interests of the individual are. The 
teacher has to deal with a lot of psychological raw 
material, and he wishes to know what he shall, try 
to make of it, toward what ideal he shall seek to 



Aspects of Education 23 

have it shape itself. Is it not evident that the one 
thing that he needs to know is in what the true in- 
terests of the individual lie? And is it not equally 
clear that you are giving him no positive conception 
when you tell him that the interests of the indi- 
vidual consist in such a development of his powers 
as will enable him to see and respond to the inter- 
ests of society? I say, no positive conception: there 
is a negative idea of very great value in Dr. Dewey's 
definition. He says that the material, selfish view of 
education is not the true one : so far it is good. But 
when we ask for a positive statement of the end of 
education, his definition gives us nothing but words. 
It tells us that it consists in such a training of the 
individual as will promote the interest of society. 
But it does not tell us in what the interests either 
of the individual or of society consists." — A Broader 
Elementary Education, p. 70. 

94. Education from nature, men and circum- 
stances. — Consider this excerpt from Rousseau (a) 
for its validity as an opinion, (b) for its agreement 
or lack of agreement with sections 91, 92, 93. 

"We are born weak, we have need of help ; we are 
born destitute of everything, we stand in need of 
assistance ; we are born stupid, we have need of 
understanding. All that we are not possessed of at 
our birth, and which we require when grown up, is 
bestowed on us by education. This education we 
receive from nature, from men, or from circum- 
stances. The constitutional exertion of our organs 
and faculties is the education of nature ; the uses we 
are taught to make of that exertion constitute the 



24 The Science of Education 

education given us by men; and in the acquisitions 
made by our own experience, on the objects that 
surround us, consists our education from circum- 
stances. We are formed, therefore, by three kinds 
of masters. Of these three different kinds of edu- 
cation, that of nature depends not on ourselves; 
and but in a certain degree that of circumstances; 
the third, which belongs to men, is that only ~ we 
have in our power: and even of this we are masters 
only in imagination; for who can flatter himself he 
will be able entirely to govern the discourse and ac- 
tions of those who are about a child?" — From 
Entile. 

Evolution 

95. Education an evolutionary process. — If we 

claim unity, continuity and development as char- 
acteristics of the educative process, may we not 
say that education is an evolutionary process? 
Evolution in this sense is not intended to mean 
all that is implied in animal evolution. The doc- 
trine of evolution, as applied to lower animal life, 
rests upon (1) the struggle for existence, (2) the 
survival of the fittest, and (3) natural selection. 
Surely the first is operative, and the other two may 
claim consideration in education. But analogy be- 
comes clearer if we take adjustment to environ- 
ment as a conception of education. Biologically, 
the word adjustment characterizes the whole strug- 
gle for physical development; and likewise in spir- 
itual life, adjustment is both psychological and 






Aspects of Education 25 

sociological in its connotation. The adjective evo- 
lutionary may, therefore, be applied to the educa- 
tive process. 

For lucid treatment of this question, consult 
Ruediger's The Principles of Education, 40-56. 

96. Deductions from the evolutionary concep- 
tion. — The two most impressive deductions from 
the evolutionary method of study are, first, the 
continuity of existence, the organic oneness of all 
things in spite of the great contrasts m the spheres 
of mechanism, chemism, organism and spirit ; sec- 
ond, that existence, so far as we know it in nature 
and mind, is dynamic, in a continual process of 
becoming. It is presupposed that the natural and 
social orders are parts of one organic process, and, 
in some way or other, form one cosmos. Man's 
living nature, therefore, is related to the nature 
of all life. In thus making man in his entire nature 
subject to evolutionary law an advantage is pre- 
sented to the cause of education. Man is viewed 
as the outcome of the creative process of the 
world, and education becomes the last and highest 
form of evolution. — MacVanncJ. 

97. Further analogy. — Is there anything in the 
process of education as a fact of our experience by 
means of which educational theory may be brought 
into definite relationship with the facts of organic 
and social evolution? 

(a) In man as compared with the lower animals 
there is found (1) a more completely organized 
nervous system, (2) a more complex psychical life, 
(3) a corresponding lengthening of the period of 



2.6 The Science of Education 

infancy. An adequate interpretation of the mean- 
ing of infancy was not forthcoming prior to the rise 
of the doctrine of evolution as a scientific method. 

(b) The presuppositions of the life process in 
organic and social evolutions are organism and en- 
vironment. In both spheres of life-process is a pro- 
cess of adapting the organism to its environment. 

(c) Education, in its widest sense, is a process of 
adaptation, made possible and necessary because 
of the period of infancy in the individual, and in 
this way was formed an integral part of organic 
and social evolution. The lengthening of the 
period of infancy renders education at once possi- 
ble and imperative. — MacVannel. 

98. Period of infancy. — This expression is 
used to denote the period of dependence on paren- 
tal care. Growing out of and supporting the doc- 
trine of evolution, it has been interpreted as na- 
ture's compliment to mankind. In the ascending 
scale from the amoeba to man, the period of im- 
maturity gradually lengthens until in the human 
species alone the period of infancy is long enough 
to insure the individual a development from in- 
stinctive action to rational control. The period of 
infancy, being a period of plasticity, is receptive to 
all the educative agencies mentioned in this chapter. 

Culture Epoch Theory 

99. Meaning. — This theory "holds that the in- 
dividual in his development reproduces the main 
stages passed through in the evolution of the 



Aspects of Education 27 

race ; in other words, that development reproduces 
evolution; the educational inference being that the 
culture products in particular epochs in the evolu- 
tion of the race are the most appropriate material 
for the individual in his corresponding stages of 
development." In other words: "The individual 
mind in its development repeats the order of de- 
velopment of the race mind." The history of civ- 
ilization presents certain stages or epochs as the 
pastoral epoch, the nomadic epoch, the stone age, 
the bronze age, the hunting stage, the agricultural 
epoch, and so on. It is believed that each stage 
of race development shows certain' culture pro- 
ducts in religion, history, literature, etc., and that 
such culture products should be arranged in the 
course of study for the corresponding epochs or 
stages in child development. 

100. Value. — The chief value of the culture 
epoch theory is in the side light it throws upon 
child psychology, and in the recognition it gives 
to the individual's oneness with the race. It is 
helpful in explaining certain tendencies and im- 
pulses peculiar to children's growth. But it is 
doubtful whether anything of value has been or 
can be discovered by working comformably to 
the theory that might not be discovered through 
a sympathetic study of the individual without ref- 
erence to his recapitulation of race development. 

Any attempt to apply the theory closely must 
be futile, for only the most general correspond- 
ence can be found between the periods of the 
child's development and the epochs of race 



28 The Science of Education 

growth. Even if it were possible to establish ex- 
act correspondence, it would be unwise to plan a 
course of study and methods of teaching in strict 
conformity therewith, for the sufficient reason 
that, in his recapitulation, the average child ex- 
hibits some characteristics it is highly desirable to 
eliminate. The child, as the heir of the race, 
should be put in possession of only the best which 
the race has gained for him. And he should be 
trained to adapt himself to the actual conditions 
of modern life, not to those of bygone eras. — 
Roark,, Economy in Education, p. 211. See also N. E. 
A. Report, '99:576; Ed. Reviezv, 15:374; Ed. Review, 
17:105; Journal of Ped., 12:295; 16:136. 

101. Applied in Germany. — In Germany this 
theory has been put into practice largely as an aid 
in correlation. Literature and history are chosen 
for their cultural content in selecting adapted ma- 
terial, while manumental training is entirely ig- 
nored. The adapted course begins with myths, 
passes through Robinson Crusoe, Thuringian 
stories, the Niebelungen songs, the early German 
history and, finally, considers the recent periods 
of national development. 

102. Not favored in America. — In America this 
theory has not been generally accepted. The ex- 
periments that have been made here are based 
upon the manumental arts in recognition of the 
efforts of the race to adjust itself to its material 
environment. 

103. Recapitulation; parallelism. — These names 
are frequently applied to the culture epoch theory. 



Aspects of Education 29 

In striving to show a rigid recapitulation, many 
writers are arguing for organic evolution ; but our 
purpose is to ascertain what biological laws can be 
called into service in education to supplement our 
efforts for efficiency, irrespective of the rigid paral- 
lelism which some seek to establish. We have 
seen how the period of infancy permitted the sub- 
stitution of plasticity and intelligence for fixity 
and instinct ; and we know from experience in 
teaching that the undesirable tendencies (instinct- 
ive acts) of childhood can be converted into use- 
ful habits by the law of substitution. Enough, 
then, to encourage education to work toward de- 
sired ends according to pedagogical laws without 
permitting the child to repeat the ancestral mis- 
takes according to the strict interpretation of re- 
capitulation. Here, again, the right of choice is the 
privilege of experienced teachers. 

104. Authority quoted. — Admitting its provis- 
ional character as a scientific theory, it will at 
once be recognized how this idea of correspond- 
ence between race evolution and individual devel- 
opment would tend to emphasize the essentially or- 
ganic and social character of consciousness, and 
that the development of the individual must be 
along the lines marked out by the previous evolu- 
tionary process. In other words, that the progress 
of the future must be essentially in the directions 
and by the methods indicated in the spiritual 
achievements of the past. — MacVannel, p. 55. 



30 The Science of Education 

Formal Discipline 

105. Meaning. — The theory of formal discipline 
asserts that mental power developed in one subject 
is usable in any other. — Home, Principles, p. 66. 

This theory brings up two phases of daily teach- 
ing, form and content of matter. The historic 
theory held that it does not matter what is studied, 
provided it is studied rightly. This is the doctrine 
of power in education; and, as Home says, power 
applicable to any task that is assigned to us. Mod- 
ern opinion exalts content, since interest is at- 
tached to matter related to life. The object of in- 
terest is present, not in the distant future. 

The argument against the theory that there are 
distinct faculties in the human mind is contradicted 
by modern scientific research. Home does not be- 
lieve in rejecting the theory altogether, however, 
but he would modify it and express it in this way: 
"Mental power developed in one subject is appli- 
cable to any other in direct proportion to their simi- 
larity. This principle means the greater the simi- 
larity between two subjects the greater the ap- 
plicability of mental power developed in one to the 
other; the less similarity, the less applicability." 
(Principles, p. 71.) 

106. DeGarmo quoted. — "This doctrine is used 
as a standing argument for so-called disciplinary 
education, especially that in pure mathematics and 
classical languages. The assumption is that if the 
student masters these, he will thereby acquire a 
mental power that can be applied almost equally 



Aspects of Education 31 

well to any kind of practical or professional life. This 
gymnastic theory of education involves the idea that 
it does not matter upon what the mind is exercised, 
provided only the exercise be vigorous and long- 
continued. The inadequacy of the theory lies in 
the fact that it ignores or underestimates the im- 
portance of the choice of subjects, both for their 
gymnastic efficiency, and their ultimate worth in 
developing the individual. A life of crime develops 
acuteness of intellect, but it does not develop good 
citizens. Again, mental alertness in philology, or 
grammar, or higher algebra, does not insure corre- 
sponding alertness in those fields in which there is 
neither knowledge nor interest. The mind is never 
efficient in any department of endeavor in which 
either education or experience has not provided 
rich and abundant masses of apperceiving ideas." — 
In Dictionary of Philosophy. 

107. Modification suggested. — The movements 
in educational criticism are likely to reach ex- 
tremes. Teaching without text-books sought to 
overcome abuse of the memory process, but the 
remedy was worse than the evil since pupils were 
made entirely dependent upon teachers. Lists of 
words were substituted for spelling books because 
the books were not adapted to all the pupils ; re- 
sult, an epoch of shameful misspelling. Latin and 
Greek were taught as content studies by the ab- 
sorptive method, and the students failed in fresh- 
man college work. Geometry was made inductive 
and the theorems were not memorized; result, 
quick return to a method that called memory and 



2,2 The Science of Education 

reasoning into action. The prudent teacher knows 
that the best content must be associated with 
definite form. Call the practice discipline, culture 
or other name, as you like, but see that every child 
works persistently toward a habit of mastery of all 
rules, directions, laws, or forms that are needed 
as a basis for clear concepts. In higher education, 
too, this suggestion holds, particularly with refer- 
ence to the training of the memory. False psychol- 
ogy need not be summoned to uphold this prac- 
tice; confused concepts and incoherent language 
demand a remedy that can be found in consistently 
applying formal training to the interpretation of 
suitable content. 

1 08. Affiliated interests. — A classification of edu- 
cative activities, aside from the actual classroom 
work, includes athletics, literary societies, school 
publications, musical organizations, summer camps, 
nature study clubs and alumni associations. These 
supplementary agencies already exist; the point 
for consideration is how to use each agency in pro- 
ducing results that are desirable contributions in 
the work of education. See index for school fra- 
ternities. 

109. The school and the community. — The five 
institutional factors in education are mentioned in 
section 90. An outline suggests means and values 
in bringing all the factors into co-operation. The 
topic is suggestively treated by Dutton's School 
Management, page 200. The outline given here is a 
composite one based on several authorities. 



Aspects of Education 33 

1. The school and the home. 

a. Visits by teachers and nurses. 

b. Parents' meetings. 

c. Improvement societies. 

d. School exhibitions. 

e. Rhetorical exercises. 
/. Pupils' report cards. 
g. Graduation exercises. 

2. The school and the church. — Lines of effort 
parallel with those in the school and the 
home. 

3. The school and the state. 

a. Obedience to law. 

b. Respect for authority. 

c. Desire to co-operate. 

4. The school and the library. 

a. Literature and character. 

b. Desire for self-improvement. 

c. Substitution in habit: reading vs. idleness. 

5. The school and the museum. 

a. Visualization. 

b. Recorded observation, a means of causing 
reactions. Notes on observations put into 
composition form. 

c. Collecting impulse stimulated and guided. 

d. Aesthetic influence. 

6. The school and the newspaper. 

a. The support of the press needed. 

b. Current history a vitalizing force. 

c. School papers as means of expression. 

7. The school and industry. 



34 The Science of Education 

a. Excursions. 

b. Commercial geography. 

c. Applied arithmetic. 

d. Correlation with life. 

no. The school as a social centre. — This phase 
of education is modern. Think again how to make 
these agencies effective. The principle of school ex- 
tension is that education is a life process. If you 
agree with this principle, think of five ways in 
which your teaching can satisfy it. 

i. Vacation schools. 

2. Evening schools. 

3. Free lectures. 

4. Parents' associations. 

5. School decoration. 

in. Assignment for written work. 

1. Name the five institutional factors in educa- 
tion. 

2. Is individuality necessarily sacrificed in the 
adjustment of the individual to society? 

3. Explain (a) social consciousness, (b) social 
stimulus, (c) socialization. 

4. (a) State briefly the doctrine of formal disci- 
pline, (b) Discuss its validity, citing one experi- 
ment or definite observation, (c) What are the 
practical implications of the rejection and of the 
acceptance of this doctrine? 

5. (a) State the general doctrine of evolution 
and name the chief factors involved in the process, 
(b) Show how the educational process may be re- 
garded as an evolution, and indicate the factors in- 



Aspects of Education 35 

volved. (c) Show in two definite aspects the bearing 
of the evolutionary doctrine upon educational prac- 
tice. 

112. Organization. — It is evident that organiza- 
tion is needed in any attempt to harmonize these 
various agencies in education. Psychological and 
sociological relationships are prominent in all the 
efforts to secure adjustment. Opportunity is an- 
other name for education. 



CHAPTER III 
THE COURSE OF STUDY 

113. Logical relation. — In the study of the 
science of education, the first step is to secure a sat- 
isfactory definition of education. That definition is 
an aim or standard in all subsequent work. The 
second step is to ascertain the nature of the subject- 
matter to be used in trying to satisfy the general 
aim of education. This necessitates a consideration 
of the curriculum. Then, having the aim and the 
matter, we must consider methods of teaching as 
the third step,, and the fourth is the justification of 
the first three by psychological princples of educa- 
tion. These four steps form a large working plan 
in the science of education. 

114. Meaning. 

1. The epitomized representation to the child of 
the cultural inheritance of the race. — Monroe's Text 
Book, p. 756. 

2. The spiritual organism of experience. — Mac- 
Vannel. 

This agrees with Monroe's definition. 

3. The course of study is too often considered 
an objective arrangement of real things; whereas 
it is but the successive transformations throughout 
which the pupil passes in his progress towards 

36 



The Course of Study 37 

self-realization. — Tompkins, p. 262, Philosophy of 
Teaching. 

4. For further research, consult Home's Philoso- 
phy of Education, chapter V ; Seeley's Elementary Ped- 
agogy, chapters II, V, XVI; Butler's Meaning of 
Education, chapters I and II; Committee of Fifteen, 
page 41 ; Committee of Ten, Index I and VI ; Find- 
lay, Principles of Class Teaching, pages 18-52; 
Dewey, My Pedagogic Creed, and Ethical Principles 
Underlying Education; Hanus, Educational Aims and 
Methods. 

115. Principles determining course of study. — 
Our conception of education embodies the recipro- 
cal relations of the individual and society. It is not 
enough to know our civic duties ; right thinking 
must pass into right action. So the first principle 
is a sociological one; the second, psychological. 
The former shows what subject-matter will tend to 
develop broad, useful, efficient knowledge; the lat- 
ter indicates the manner of adapting the chosen 
subjects to the capacities of individual minds. 

MacVannel writes as follows on the principles 
determining the selection of studies: (a) "Socio- 
logical. Does the study (as a group of facts or 
principles gathered together and systematized) 
embody some fundamental phase of social experi- 
ence? Does it represent a fundamental manifesta- 
tion of the spiritual life of the race? What interest 
is fundamental to the study? (b) Psychological. 
What part does the study play in helping the indi- 
vidual to interpret his crude experience and to con- 
trol his powers with reference to social ends? — 



38 The Science of Education 

Syllabus, 12, p. 57. See Seeley, p. 270, for further 
discussion. 

See Seeley's Elementary Pedagogy, pages 20, 57 
and 271 for another expression of opinion. 

116. Arrangement. — The New York City 
course of study is arranged according to Butler's 
definition of education as given in section 68. The 
five divisions corresponding to inheritances are in 
the elementary and the secondary courses. Take 
the exposition in the following paragraph and see 
if those inheritances can be traced through the 
high school course. Is it not advisable to add a 
sixth inheritance, the industrial inheritance? 

The scientific inheritance is found in geography, 
nature study, mathematics,, and physics ; the liter- 
ary inheritance includes all forms of literary com- 
position and interpretation; the aesthetic inherit- 
ance includes drawing, music, and all other kinds 
of art that may aid in forming a higher conception 
of life; the institutional inheritance is found in all 
kinds of civic training, including political geogra- 
phy, history, civics, and all the subordinate forms 
of government represented in state and municipal 
organizations; and the religious inheritance in- 
cludes all forms of training that are conducive to 
spiritual perfection. 

117. DeGarmo on arrangement— In Interest and 
Education, page 62, DeGarmo says that "the nor- 
mally constituted mind should dwell, for a time at 
least, upon each distinctive department of human 
knowledge." Then he gives us the classification as 
follows : 



The Course of Study 39 

"We have first of all the human sciences, — those 
that pertain to man as man, to his life as embodied 
in institutions. Excluding the professional aspects 
of such studies, this group embraces languages, an- 
cient and modern, literature, art, and history. 

"Next we have the natural sciences, — those that 
pertain to nature as such, — they are physics, chem- 
istry, and astronomy, together with their basis of 
pure mathematics; the biological sciences; and the 
earth sciences, like physical geography and 
geology. 

"Finally we have the economic sciences, — those that 
show the mind of man in intimate interaction with 
the forces of nature. These sciences embrace eco- 
nomics proper, technology, and commercial knowl- 
edge and technique. 

"We have here from nine to twelve distinct de- 
partments of knowledge, according to the minute- 
ness of our classification. The social reason why 
every student should have something of each, is 
that each represents a distinct and important de- 
partment of human achievement. The psychologi- 
cal reason why each mind should come in contact 
with every one of these departments, is that each 
one embodies a distinct method, a definite mental 
movement, not found adequately represented in 
any other branch. The method of linguistics, for 
instance, is quite distinct from that of mathematics 
or art or history. The evolutionary sciences are 
wholly different in method from the exact sciences. 
In the same way commercial technique differs from 
that of mechanics." 



4o The Science of Education 

118. Dewey's opinion. — Consult Educational 
Creeds, p. n; School and Society; Ethical Principles 
Underlying Education. Following is MacVannel's in- 
terpretation of Dewey's views: 

Professor Dewey maintains that the education 
of the present must undergo, in response to the 
changed social conditions, a reconstruction in aim, 
in subject-matter and method; a reconstruction not 
hurried nor haphazard, but thorough-going and 
rational. This reconstruction, moreover, Pro- 
fessor Dewey holds, is already in progress. For 
him the controlling factors in the primary curricu- 
lum of the future are "manual training, science, 
nature-study, art and history. These keep alive 
the child's positive and creative impulses, and di- 
rect them in such ways as to discipline them into 
the habits of thought and action required for ef- 
fective participation in community life." "It is pos- 
sible to initiate the child from the first in a direct, 
not abstract or symbolic, way, into the operations 
by which society maintains its existence, material 
and spiritual." "The present has its claims. It is 
in education, if anywhere, that the claims of the 
present should be controlling * * *" "Neverthe- 
less eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, and 
eternal care and nurture are the price of maintain- 
ing the precious conquest of the past — of prevent- 
ing a relapse into Philistinism, that combination of 
superficial enlightenment and dogmatic crudity. If 
it were not for an aristocracy of the past, there 
would be but little worth conferring upon the de- 
mocracy of to-day." 



The Course of Study 41 

119. Harris on arrangement. — See Psychologic 
Foundations of Education, 321-341. 

"The studies of the school will fall naturally into 
these five co-ordinate groups: first, mathematics 
and physics; second, biology, including chiefly the 
plant and the animal ; third, literature and art, 
including chiefly the study of literary works of art ; 
fourth, grammar and the technical and scientific 
study of language, leading to such branches as 
psychology ; fifth, history and the study of sociologi- 
cal, political and social institutions. Each one of 
these groups should be represented in the curricu- 
lum of the schools at all times by some topic suited 
to the age and previous training of the pupil." 
(Page 323.) 

Agreeing with the Committee of Fifteen, Dr.Har- 
ris places emphasis upon the spiritual dependence 
of the individual on the civilization into which the 
individual is born. His theory further emphasizes 
the function of the school as a means of maintain- 
ing civilization by producing types of men in har- 
mony with the ideals of civilization; and under this 
view, the unity and continuity of human experience 
will determine the selection and the correlation of 
studies. 

120. Characteristics. — Adaptability, flexibility, 
correlation, co-ordination, enrichment and concen- 
tration are defined as characteristics of modern 
courses of study. 

1. Adaptability refers to the ease with which a 
course of study may be fitted to the needs of the 
community. Flexibility is a special application of 



42 The Science of Education 

adaptability. The New York City course of study 
has adaptability because it satisfies the large needs 
of American life; the course has flexibility because 
it can be fitted to the special needs of sections or 
districts or schools in New York City. 

2. Correlation of studies has reference to the or- 
ganic relation of lines of thought running through 
the course, while enriching the course has refer- 
ence to the unfolding of single lines of thought. 

Correlation, then, is putting such subjects side by 
side at a given time in the course as will help to 
bring to view the universal relations involved in the 
study of any one of them. — Tompkins, Philosophy of 
Teaching, p. 263. 

For four explanations of correlation, as given by 
the Committee of Fifteen, see Methods of Educa- 
tion,, 11. 

3. The arrangement of studies in group of equal 
rank is co-ordination of studies. Illustration in 
plans of Butler, DeGarmo and Harris. 

4. Enriching the course of study is an effort to 
bring the elements of the higher subjects, such as 
geometry, general history, literature, botany and 
astronomy into the very beginning of the course, 
thereby replacing and postponing the abstruse 
phases of some of the lower subjects. There is a 
phase of astronomy more elementary than a phase 
of arithmetic; and it would enrich the course to 
have astronomy brought down in the place of that 
phase of arithmetic which can make no appeal to 
the pupil because too abstract and general for his 



The Course of Study 43 

concrete way of thinking. — Tompkins, Philosopliy of 
Teaching, p. 262. 

5. A curriculum based upon concentration of 
studies has one study as the centre or core, and 
other related studies are grouped around the core. 
Ziller, a disciple of Herbart, used literature and 
history as the core ; Colonel Parker used geogra- 
phy; and John Dewey advocates manual training. 

Concentration favors a strict interpretation of the 
culture epoch theory. Germany favors concentra- 
tion, but America does not. 

121. Characteristics distinguished. — Observe 
that concentration makes use of one central study 
with radiating lines of related knowledge ; that co- 
ordination makes use of more than one study, — five 
in the scheme of Harris, such groups being of equal 
value, and that correlation utilizes the general lines 
of related knowledge running through and unifying 
all the subjects and all the groups of subjects in the 
course of study. Correlation is a general term in- 
cluding concentration and co-ordination. 

122. Roark quoted.— "So far as definitions may 
be drawn from the literature of the Herbartian 
writers and their critics, the term 'correlation' is 
generic and includes the other two. 'Concentration' 
means the grouping or correlating of studies around 
a central core, between which and the other sub- 
jects some vital relation exists. 'Co-ordination' is 
the correlation of several groups of studies with one 
another, each group made up of associated subjects, 
and equal in rank to each other group." — Economy in 
Education, 212. 



44 The Science of Education 

123. Tompkins on concentration. — The theory 
of "concentration" from which so much is now 
promised, as usually taught and practiced, is but the 
wavering image of the universal law of method. 
True concentration is not the strained and mechani- 
cal bringing together of diverse subject-matter into 
the same recitation, but fixing the attention on all 
the relations of the given subject, and thus draw- 
ing into the movement the other subjects required 
for the mastery of the one under consideration. In 
the true unifying process, emphasis must be given 
to the content and not to the extent of subject- 
matter; whereas, superficial concentration empha- 
sizes the diversity of matter which may be disposed 
of during a given period. In teaching a plant, the 
teacher must not say to himself, "Now I must bring 
into the discussion geometry, literature, theology, 
etc.," but rather, "Now I must press the pupil's at- 
tention close to the relations which constitute the 
plant." If this should involve the facts and laws of 
geometric forms, let it be so; if this should reveal 
the infinite life, appealing as a poem to the sense of 
the beautiful, it must be well ; if this should mani- 
fest infinite wisdom and supernatural power, the- 
ology has found its way into the movement without 
awkward circumlocution to make a place for it. If 
the thing be taught in the only way it can truly be 
taught, whatever subjects are needed will inevitably 
be drawn into the process. — Tompkins, p. 261. 

124. Application. — The use of these character- 
istics in theory and practice is shown by no other 
man so well as by Dr. Maxwell in his address on 



The Course of Study 45 

Some Phases oe the; New Course oe Study (1904). 
The address is printed in full in Methods in Education, 
pages 15 to 35. Students in higher education can 
profitably study those basal ideas and then trace the 
application of the principles through all grades in 
our school system. 

125. Co-ordination beyond the elementary 
school. — Higher instruction continues on the five 
lines marked out for elementary and secondary in- 
struction, taking up such branches as (a) higher 
mathematical studies and their applications in 
physics; (b) the several sciences that contribute to 
a knowledge of the processes of the earth and of 
organic beings (geology, biology, meteorology, 
etc.); (c) ancient and modern languages, compar- 
ative philology, logic, philosophy; (d) political 
economy and sociology, moral philosophy, philoso- 
phy of civil history, constitutional history; (e) phi- 
losophy and history of art, literature and rhetoric. — 
Harris. Psychologic Foundations of Education, p. 334. 

126. Limitations of correlation in teaching. — 
Teaching the two things to be related at the same 
time is in fact not the essential in correlation, but 
only one means. The essential is that the two be 
related in the pupil's mind. One may be taught five 
years after the other, but if its relations with the 
other are then made a part of the pupil's mental 
equipment, all may be well. One may be taught 
by one teacher and the other by another teacher, 
but if each teacher makes the necessary cross-con- 
nections, the two systems of connections in the 
pupil's mind will henceforth co-operate, 



46 The Science of Education 

The chief dangers to be avoided in teaching re- 
lationships are: (i) such an infatuation with the 
doctrine of correlation as leads one to waste time 
in teaching relationships so obvious that a pupil is 
sure to make them for himself or so trivial that 
they are not worth the making, and (2) such ig- 
norance or carelessness as leads one to teach rela- 
tionships that are false or artificial. It is as bad 
or even worse to teach a useless relationship as a 
useless fact, a false relationship as a false fact. — ■ 
Thorndike, Principles of Teaching, p. 129. 

127. An eclectic course of study. — Modern 
courses of study are said to be eclectic because they 
embody the chosen culture products of civilization. 
To complete the five inheritances, it is suggested 
that a sixth, industrial inheritance, be added to 
satisfy the recognition of industrial training as a 
part of systematic education. As an interesting 
study in development, recall what was taught in 
the oriental nations and then trace the history of 
courses of study. The following courses are sug- 
gested, with references by pages to McEvoy's Epit- 
ome of History and Principles of Education: 

1. Greece — Music and Gymnastics, pages 38 and 

58. 

2. Rome — Utilitarian Tendencies, pages 60 and 
70. 

3. Monasticism — Seven Liberal Arts, page 86. 

4. Early Christian Universities — Law, Medi- 
cine, Philosophy, Theology, page 102. 

5. Sturm — Classical High School Course, page 
128. 



The Course of Study 47 

6. Jesuits — Ratio Studiorum, page 130. 

7. Comenius — Nature, page 154. 

8. Spencer — Science, page 216. 

9. Modern — Eclectic. See opinions of Harris, 
Dewey, DeGarmo, Butler, and others. 

128. Suggestive exercise. 

1. Illustrate enrichment in a high school course. 

2. Define apperception. Show its relation to 
the apperceptive process. 

3. To what extent would you correlate English 
history and English literature? Illustrate. 

4. To what extent would you correlate the study 
of the Latin language and the study of Roman 
life. 

5. Can composition and chemistry be corre- 
lated? Give reason for your answer. 

6. "Every recitation may be made a recitation 
in language." Comment upon this. Would you, 
for instance, teach punctuation, spelling, correct 
forms of speech, etc., in a regular lesson in your 
specialty? 

7. Give reasons for or against correlating the 
following: 

(a) The growth of weeds in a neglected 
garden and the development of bad habits in 
lazy pupils. 

(b) Physics and mathematics. 

(c) Drawing and your specialty. 

8. Explain meaning of "culture products of 
civilization." 

9. Express agreement or disagreement with this 
excerpt: Correlation is not the teaching of two 



48 The Science of Education 

things at the same time — that is not the meaning 
at all, but it is using a fact or principle learned in 
one study, to illuminate or demonstrate something 
difficult of apprehension in another. Thus, gram- 
mar may be made to elucidate obscure or involved 
sentences in the reading lesson; stories from history 
brighten the details of geography, and the facts of 
geography explain, as nothing else can, the move- 
ments of history; while the knowledge acquired in 
arithmetic may be and should be used for quanti- 
tative work in every other subject, but particularly 
in science, civics, and geography. — Maxzvell. 



CHAPTER IV 
METHODS OF TEACHING 

129. Relation to science of education. — Science 
requires exact classifications, but we cannot expect 
to find exactness until we have enough data for ex- 
perimentation and verification. Some writers claim 
that education is entitled to be ranked as a science, 
while many others hold that education is still in a 
formative state. From its nature, education will 
always be in a formative state; but if any depart- 
ment or phase approaches scientific justification, 
methods of teaching must have that credit. It is a 
long era from Socrates to Herbart, but during all 
those years thinking men were formulating pro- 
cesses of teaching in accordance with the needs of 
the learners. The attempted adjustment of matter 
and mind was and is the vital consideration in 
method ; it is what modern pedagogy is trying to ac- 
complish by bringing teacher, pupil and subject- 
matter nearer the ideal condition described by the 
expression the meeting of the minds. We are still 
using too many names in our classification, but 
methods of teaching, as such, are not far from being 
effectual. 

It is not necessary to reproduce the two chapters, 

49 



50 The Science of Education 

Methods of Teaching and General Method,, 
pages 76 to no in Methods in Education. That 
treatment is authoritative, basal work. It is neither 
prudent nor logical for advanced students to try 
to interpret and apply high school or collegiate 
methods without first mastering those simple ele- 
ments that constitute a clear concept. Appercep- 
tion likewise demands the easy, natural order of 
development. 

130. Method and habit. — The supreme value of 
method is the habit of mental activity acquired by 
the child. All processes and principles should be 
directed toward self-activity as a means of self- 
realization. Habits of definite, orderly, persistent 
work are the safeguard of the pupils when the pu- 
pils approach duties and tasks outside of the school 
environment. Methods are, therefore, casual in re- 
lation to efficiency in life. 

131. Monroe quoted. — Method is the process of 
using this culture material so as to produce the de- 
sired development of the child; a development 
which will include the expansion of his own powers, 
the creation of control over them and the directions 
of them to the necessary, to the useful, and to help- 
ful social activities. Method is the regulation of 
this process by the teacher. Method is the guid- 
ance of the child in his activities by the teacher so 
that he may incorporate into his own experience 
that portion of the experience of the race which, 
to those who have the direction of his education, 
seems valuable; that is, suitable for his stage of 
development and similar in complexity to his own 



Methods of Teaching 51 

interests and activities. The sole effort of the 
teacher should be directed toward the guidance of 
this process; his sole interest should be in the ex- 
panding consciousness of the child, in furnishing 
experiences appropriate to the power of the child 
and properly related to his interests and activities. 
— Text Book, p. 757. 

132. Methods dependent upon mind. — Methods 
of teaching depend, in a last analysis, upon the 
acts of mind involved in sense experience and 
thought. First impressions are prone to inadequacy 
and even incorrectness. A complete survey of the 
act of knowledge will show three steps in method; 
observation, deduction, induction. — Dictionary of 
Psychology. 

133. Classification. — Oral language is the 
natural means of communication; hence, there is 
the conversational method. Inquisitiveness finds 
expression in questions, and thus the question 
method signifies instinct and intelligence. Knowl- 
■•k'* is not gained at a single bound; hence, the de- 
velopment method is both cause and effect. The 
varying needs of individuals required various 
stimuli to produce reactions, and thus the develop- 
ment method had to yield to different kinds of ap- 
proach — inductive, heuristic, concrete. A single 
experience of joy, pain,, fear or hunger led to a con- 
clusion that became a race habit, and the deductive 
method lived as an infallible process for centuries. 
We might go on to justify each of a score of meth- 



52 The Science of Education 

ods by instinctive laws, but further suggestion is 
unnecessary. Better turn to the tendency to con- 
solidate and eliminate, and, by doing so, arrive at 
this simple classification: 

Analytic — synthetic 

Inductive — deductive 

Topical 

Socratic 
134. Topical method. — The wide use of this ar- 
rangement of facts makes the topical method the 
most popular one in high school work. As we have 
said elsewhere, the advantages of the topical 
method are convenience in assigning lessons, defi- 
nite responsibility in recitation, and independence 
of pupil in thought and expression. The disad- 
vantage comes only from abuse in which facts are 
disconnected and class stimulus is sacrificed to indi- 
vidual achievement. 

It should be noted that the topical may or may 
not be. logical. Very little matter in school books 
is arranged according to the rigid laws of logic. 
The five formal steps of instruction are logical, and 
outlines in grammar may be so; but daily work 
in literature, composition and history is likely to be 
arranged according to more flexible standards. 

The use of the topical method should be advo- 
cated as a means of teaching pupils how to study. 
The habit of observing things as they are expressed 
by others, the habit of selecting essentials, the habit 
of organizing the facts selected,, the habit of study- 
ing the facts as arranged in outline form, the habit 
of oral reproduction or written reproduction, and 



Methods of Teaching 53 

finally the habit of relating this sectional outline 
with preceding and following sections, — all are 
habits that should be blended into one in school 
work. Compare with Earhart's Teaching Children to 
Study or McMurry's Haw to Study or Dewey's How 
Wc Think. 



CHAPTER V 
GENERAL METHOD 

135. Meaning. — The operation of the human 
mind is such that it is possible to formulate one 
method that is valid for all human beings and all 
subject-matter. 

136. Basis. — The justification of this claim was 
found in the analysis of apperception. Herbart con- 
sidered apperception the one great process in learn- 
ing; and out of his study of the process, came the 
conclusion that there is one effective method of 
presentation, namely, general method as embodied 
in the five formal steps of instruction. 

137. Ideal. — The aim or ideal in education is the 
concept. Socrates thought so too. Both Socrates 
and Herbart advocated a formal procedure as a 
means of causing the mind to work rightly. With 
Herbart, the process was exalted; so again we turn 
to method for desirable habits of activity. Observe 
always how general method is related to the apper- 
ceptive process, concepts, and desirable habits. 

138. The steps. — Methods in Education, page 100. 
Another explanation by DeGarmo follows: 

(1) Preparation. This consists of a brief prelimi- 
nary review of such acquired knowledge or experi- 

54 



General Method 55 

ence as will best fit the child's mind for a rapid and 
interested appropriation of the new matter about 
to be presented. (2) Presentation of the new lesson. 
(3) Association. This stage provides for more com- 
plete apperception of the facts of the new lesson by 
associating them intimately with related facts al- 
ready acquired. (4) Generalisation. This stage gath- 
ers up the facts of the lesson in such a manner that 
their deeper inner significance may be grasped by 
the pupil. In many studies these generalizations 
appear in the form of definitions, rules, principles, 
laws, maxims, &c. (5) Application. By this stage 
is meant those drill and practical exercises which 
tend to fix knowledge in mind,, and to secure a facile 
application of it to practical affairs. As may easily 
be seen, these stages are but an amplification of ob- 
servation, deduction and induction, the three logi- 
cal steps found in all experience and thinking. — In 
Dictionary of Psychology. 

139. Method-whole. — This term has been used 
to designate the subject-matter suitable for teach- 
ing by the general method. In other words, any 
portion of matter that could be arranged for lessons 
so that the process of teaching went from the par- 
ticular to the general and then back to the par- 
ticular, was called a method-whole. The term is 
going out of use; lesson plan and lesson unity are 
substituted. 

140. Generalization. — This step has been spoken 
of as the most important one in all education. 
Why? Think how many acts are involved as the 
apperceptive process transfers the thought from 



56 The Science of Education 

the particular notion to the general notion and 
thus puts the idea into the sphere of abstract knowl- 
edge. Think of the blending of the products ob- 
servation, memory, imagination, reasoning and 
judgment; think of comparison, the laws of simi- 
larity and contiguity; think of abstraction, a pro- 
cess that distinguishes man from man by the degree 
of mental acuteness ; and finally think of generaliza- 
tion, the climax of induction, the one distinctive 
intellectual act which lifts the human species far 
above all other forms of creation. Truly generali- 
zation is a wonderful summarizing process, and 
yet how many of us stop to consider that it is the 
one thing pupils are trying to accomplish? 

141. Individual opinion. — In all the work in 
this chapter and in the succeeding chapters, stu- 
dents should recall and apply the substance of the 
preceding matter in this book. Add to this your 
own practical experience with pupils. While an 
acceptable viewpoint must be held, students should 
express themselves with a certain degree of inde- 
pendence as long as the expression is based upon 
experience that has produced satisfactory results. 
It is neither necessary nor desirable to try to get 
students to adapt themselves to one mould of opin- 
ion. Nor would it be possible to do so, if it were 
desirable. 

Section 142 contains an abstract from an article 
by Dr. Hervey, of the New York City Board of 
Examiners. In agreement with other educators, 
he expresses a liberal view. The abstract is taken 



General Method 57 

from New York Teachers' Monographs for December, 
1902. 

During this year (1911) much has been written 
to discredit general method. It is probable that 
less attention will be directed to the formal steps, 
but still some of those steps must be retained as 
essential mental acts. Dr. Hervey's thought is 
worthy of analysis, even though general method 
may not remain a cherished inheritance. 

142. Dr. Hervey quoted. — "The central prob- 
lem of instruction considered as a formal process 
is the problem of making knowledge our own; the 
key to the solution is the nature of the mind itself; 
and that view of the mind which helps in this 
problem is the view which regards the mind as an 
arrangement for converting stimuli into reactions, 
for transmuting experience into knowledge and 
knowledge into life. Under this view there are 
three basic and guiding principles. 

(a) "Our thinking and learning is practical. As 
we think we are learning to act. As we act we an 1 
learning to think. Thought without a deed is not 
even a complete thought. In other words we learn 
to do by doing. Further, we s'hould teach nothing 
that is not of use ; finally, under this principle it 
follows that the idea of use or application must al- 
ways be present. The maxims, 'Turn to use,' 
'Learn through doing,' are akin to the maxims, 
'Present to sense,' 'Present a good model,' 'Teach 
objectively,' 'Evoke the will.' For when we act 
and when we turn to use we are willing and we are 
dealing with matters at first hand. We are getting 



58 The Science of Education 

sensations of acting., which sensations are the basal 
elements in our education. 

(b) "No knowledge can lead to action and bear 
on life unless it appeals to the imagination. The 
abstract by itself cannot influence life. The road 
to the will is through the concrete (i. e., through 
presentations and representations) or through the 
abstract supported by the concrete. The conclu- 
sion is : 'When teaching that which involves mental 
imagery see that mental imagery is called up in 
the minds of those taught.' 

(c) "Instruction must not stop after sensation 
and imagination. 'The end of instruction is the for- 
mation of general ideas.' Sense and imagination 
alone are not sufficient to form the circle of thought 
which education should produce. The products of 
sensation or of imagination stand out as single acts 
and it is the purpose of instruction to have these 
single acts analyzed and then expressed in the form 
of a law, a maxim or other general statement. This 
law is a general concept or a general notion. The 
general concept holding together many particulars 
answers to a consistent and well-ordered course of 
action, in which means are adjusted to ends and 
other means are in reserve to meet emergencies. 
Unless individual notions be so organized, subordi- 
nated, concatenated, the action resulting will be 
scrappy, spasmodic, inappropriate, inconsistent, 
ineffectual and self-destructive. If these three laws 
are satisfied apperception will take care of itself." 

Under these general laws it is believed that there 



General Method 59 

is a certain order of the mind in every complete act 
of instruction. This matter has been explained in 
section 138 in this chapter. Continuing in 
his article, Dr. Hervey emphasizes the point 
that the five steps need not come in the order in 
which they are mentioned, but they all should come 
somewhere in every complete act of instruction. 
He cautions teachers against making the prepara- 
tion too long because he has observed that pupils' 
minds have wonderful powers of adjustment to a 
straightforward and even blunt approach. He 
thinks that preparation instead of standing alone 
at the beginning of the recitation occurs at each 
step in teaching; each step should prepare for the 
next. Good teaching from start to finish is steeped 
in preparation. Preparation is no more an ante- 
cedent of the first step than it is of the third; hence, 
preparation may involve the presentation, thought,, 
or application or all of them; and second, that each 
of these involves preparation. There are an in- 
finite number of preparations within each method- 
whole, and there should be infinite variety in the 
method of handling them. Nor is it necessary that 
comparison and generalization should hold rigidly 
to the order in which they are named, for we fre- 
quently ask children to think and afterwards to 
imagine. 

Conclusion. "The human mind, (generally speak- 
ing) is not a blunderbuss. Yet from the directions 
for making lesson plans which I have known to be 
given to advanced classes by teachers of the formal- 



60 The Science of Education 

ist type, it would appear that teaching the mind is 
precisely analagous to loading a brass cannon. 
Swabbing, taking aim, loading with powder and 
shot, ramming home, setting off the fuse, all must 
come in a certain order not to be deviated from. 
Such a figure limps on both feet. In more senses 
than one it smacks of militarism. One who is ap- 
pealed to by it belongs in a factory where things are 
made, or on the firing line where people are shot 
at, not in a school where minds grow and are fed. 

"Therefore, the best way, in my judgment,, to 
profit by the doctrine is not to think chiefly of steps, 
or of sequence, or of separateness, or of junctions 
at which one must change cars for the next step — 
the best teachers when at their best are, I trow, 
not thinking about the formal steps — but to think 
chiefly of the ideal end of instruction, as being that 
happy state of pupils' minds in which, for warmth 
and resource, there are abundant stores of concrete 
imagery, and, for economy and serviceableness, 
there is organization-pigeon-holes and tags, card 
catalogues and indexes, or if you will, generals, 
lieutenants, and privates, each knowing his duty 
and each on the qui vive to do it. The formal steps 
are, then, so many ideals which the teacher must 
attain before his work is done." 

Examination Questions 

143. It is a chief business of education to pass 
from distinctly perceived individual notions to clear 
general notions. — Pestalozzi. 



General Method 6i 

(a) Explain what is meant by individual notions. 
(b) By general notions, (c) Give an example of 
passing from individual notions to general notions. 
(d) Describe briefly a mode of teaching which vio- 
lates Pestalozzi's principle. 

144. Certain methods or devices are sometimes 
used by a teacher with great success for a time, after 
which they are no longer effective. Why is this? 

145. "Verbal reproduction, intelligently con- 
nected with more objective work, must always play 
a leading, and surely the leading part of education. 
* * * The great difficulty with abstractions is 
to know just what meaning the pupil attaches to 
the terms he uses. The words may sound all right, 
but the meaning remains the child's own secret." — 
James. 

Describe, with illustrations, two ways by which 
the teacher can find out whether the pupil attaches 
(approximately) the true meaning to his "verbal 
reproduction." 

146. 

(a) What is it to generalize ? 

(b) What is the use of generalizing? 

(c) What are the chief obstacles to correct 
generalizing? 

(d) How, in your specialty may the power 
to generalize be developed? 

147. Show the psychological necessity of aim in 
every lesson. 

148. "Preparation, presentation and application 
are necessary in every complete act of instruction," 



62 The Science of Education 

What is educational significance of "complete act 
of instruction"? 
149. References. 

DeGarmo. Essentials of Method. 

Gordy. A Broader Elementary Education. 

Lange. Apperception. 

McMurry. Conduct of the Recitation. 

McMurry. General Method. 



CHAPTER VI 
PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

150. Meaning of principles. — This term is used 
under various significations in philosophy, but our 
purpose is to have it express a definite meaning in 
education. Webster says a principle is "a funda- 
mental truth ; a comprehensive law or doctrine, 
from which others are derived,, or on which others 
are founded." A principle of education is a law 
that applies to the human mind whenever the nor- 
mal human mind is exercised in the process of 
learning. 

The principle of apperception alone can be inter- 
preted broadly enough to include all other laws or 
principles as ordinarily discussed in books on edu- 
cation. Herbart's use of the term in this sense has 
already been spoken of as justifiable. But clearness 
in explanation seems to demand a classification in- 
cluding at least four principles of education, as fol- 
lows : 

The principle of attention. 

The principle of interest. 

The principle of apperception. 

The principle of self-activity. 

While the psychical processes in apperception 
include attention, interest and self-activity, it is 
obviously easier for young students to plan their 

63 



64 The Science of Education 

work and justify their teaching acts by citing the 
four principles. See page 41 in Methods in Education. 

151. Meaning of maxim. — A maxim of educa- 
tion is a law whose application is limited. Most of 
the maxims apply to elementary education. For 
instance, concrete to abstract is a maxim seldom ob- 
served in college instruction. 

152. Distinction not observed. — The distinction 
made here is not usually observed, but it is advisa- 
ble, nevertheless, for students to hold to the state- 
ment that only universal laws can rightly be called 
principles. The limits of time do not permit stu- 
dents to make application of more than four princi- 
ples of education in oral or written discussion; and 
the requirements of logical division would scarcely 
admit more than two headings, self-activity and 
apperception. The safe rule is the requirement of the 
case. Take apperception alone, or two headings, or 
four headings, and see if the following so-called 
principles are more than maxims or axioms: 



9 
10 

11 

12 



Reactions. 

Motivation. 

Visualization. 

Motor activity. 

One thing at a time. 

Multiple sense appeal. 

Learn to do by doing. 

Processes before rules. 

Observation before reasoning. 

From the simple to the complex. 

From the empirical to the rational. 

From the concrete to the abstract. 



Principles of Education 65 

13. From the particular to the general. 

14. Facts before definitions or principles. 

15. Self-activity is the source of knowledge. 

16. From the known to the related unknown. 

17. Never tell a child what he can find out for 
himself. 

18. Atttention on the part of the learner is the 
condition of acquiring knowledge. 

19. The mind must gain through the senses its 
knowledge of everything external to itself. 

20. There is a natural order in which the powers 
of the mind should be exercised, and the 
corresponding kinds of knowledge taught. 

21. The mind can exercise only a definite 
amount of energy at any one time. This 
amount varies with age, natural ability, and 
degree of development. 

Attention 

153. Attention defined. — Focussed conscious- 
ness is attention. 

Attention is the centering of the act of any faculty 
upon its object, by an impulse of the will. — Welch, 
Psychology, p. 5. 

Consciousness occupying itself with an object is 
attention. — Home, PsycJwlogical Principles of Educa- 
tion, p. 314. 

Attention is that act of the mind by which we 
bring into clear consciousness any subject or object 
before the mind. — Gordy, Nczv Psychology, p. in. 

Attention is concentrated consciousness. Atten- 



66 The Science of Education 

tion is not a faculty of the mind; it is simply a con- 
centration of consciousness upon some particular 
object, external or internal. 

154. Training attention. — Some one has spoken 
of attention as the mind at work or beginning to 
work upon its object. It is the aim of education to 
habituate the child to acts of attention so that the 
acts shall become responsive to the child's need. 
The "purpose is more than focussing consciousness 
intermittently; the purpose is the formation of 
serviceable habit. Here the question arises, Is at- 
tention a common or constant function of the mind, 
or is it a variable and specialized function? In 
other words, Is there a general power of attention, 
or is it a power resulting from many separate acts 
of attention? Modern pyschology favors the 
theory of many acts resulting in habit; i. e., many 
attentions, many memories, etc. 

A quotation from James is suggestive here, no 
matter what our psychological interpretation of at- 
tention may be. In the chapter on The Stream of 
Consciousness in his Psychology, he says : "Con- 
sciousness, then, does not appear to itself chopped 
up in bits. Such words as chain or train do not de- 
scribe it fitly as it presents itself in the first instance. 
It is nothing jointed; it flows. A river or stream 
are the metaphors by which it is most naturally 
described. In talking of it hereafter, let us call 
it the stream of thought, of consciousness, or of 
subjective life." 

155. Kinds of attention. — Involuntary, reflex, 
passive, spontaneous; voluntary, active; sensorial, 



Principles of Education 67 

or attention to an idea; ideational, or attention to 
an idea. For general purposes, involuntary and 
voluntary are the two classes students should 
know. The work of education is to form the habit 
of voluntary attention. 

Securing and retaining attention. 

Elaborate the points given here in relation to 
securing and retaining attention. 

1. Comfortable environment. 

2. Personality of teacher; attractive appear- 
ance, inviting manner, persuasive voice. 

3. Habit of expectancy in pupils in relation 
board, charts, presentation of lesson, drill and as- 
signment. 

4. Orderly, progressive questions; get pupil to 
ask himself questions. 

5. Responsibility; pupils feel that the teacher 
has confidence in their willingness to contribute to 
success by being attentive. 

156. Helpfulness of attention. — Attention aids 
the physical process by enabling the senses to make 
better observation ; stronger nerve currents reach 
the brain, thus assuring intensity of impression. 
Attention aids the psychical process by holding the 
image until the mind makes the percept clear and 
distinct; later, attention helps in forming clear con- 
cepts. In physical or psychical processes, time is 
an element, and attention assures time enough for 
apprehension and retention. Thus attention is 
causally related to vividness of thought. 



68 The Science of Education 

Interest 

157. Interest defined. — Interest is psychologi- 
cally both objective and subjective. Objectively, 
interest is attached to some person or thing, the 
latter being either abstract or concrete. Subject- 
ively, interest is a moving power well expressed by 
the ordinary use of the word feeling. These defini- 
tions give acceptable interpretations. 

1. The feeling attached to an idea is interest. 

2. Interest is the name given to the pleasurable 
or painful feelings which are evoked by an object or 
an idea, and which give that object the power of 
arousing and holding the attention. — Dexter and 
Garlick, Psychology, p. 31 

3. Feeling, so far as it is taken out of its isola- 
tion and put into relation to objects of knowledge 
or ideals of action, is interest. — Dewey, Psychology, 
p. 276. 

4. A genuine interest is nothing but the feeling 
that accompanies this identification of the self 
through action with some object or idea. — De- 
Garmo, Interest and Education, p. 27. 

5. Herbartian doctrine of interest. "The doc- 
trine that the interest naturally attaching to the 
ends for which pupils study should be awakened 
in the means (i. e. the studies) used for reaching 
them ; and, conversely, that permanent interest in 
the ends should be fostered through the means." 

158. Kinds of interest. — Native, acquired, indi- 
vidual and scientific. 

Native interest is instinctive attention; some- 
times called spontaneous interest. 



Principles of Education 69 

Acquired interest is native interest transformed 
to suit needs by use in adaptation to environment. 
Education begets acquired interest. 

Interest possessed by one person in one thing, 
or by one person in several characteristic things of 
his own, is individual interest. The oneness of the 
interest is noticeable ; it is particular rather than 
general. 

Interest in a class or a group of things, persons, 
places, etc., having some common characteristic, is 
scientific interest. It is general rather than par- 
ticular. 

Gordy says: Individual interest and scientific 
interest may be distinguished by illustrations. The 
distinctions may be made by illustrations from bot- 
any, zoology and psychology. The particular 
flower which grew from a seed and which you your- 
self have planted, which you have nursed and 
cared for from the beginning, botany cares nothing 
for. You may be a botanist, but as such you are 
interested only in the universal aspects and rela- 
tions of plants. The same is true, of course, of all 
the sciences. Your dog that you have taught to 
know and love you, that barks with delight when 
you come, and looks at you so longingly when you 
go, is an object of interest to you, but not to the 
zoologist. Zoology cares for him only as a type, 
queries whether creatures of his class can reason, 
studies the resemblances and differences between 
the class to which he belongs and other closely re- 
lated classes. The same is true of psychology. 
Contrast the point of view of psychology with that 



yo The Science of Education 

of the mother toward her only child. To the mother 
he is the centre of life and affection for whom she 
has lived and suffered, for whose sake she would 
willingly die. To the psychologist he is merely a 
specimen of the human race ; all that makes him 
precious in his mother's eyes the psychologist cares 
nothing about. — Broader Elementary Education, p. 
1 88. 

159. Herbartian doctrine applied. — To be inter- 
ested in a thing is to be in love with it. This kind 
of feeling develops into desire, and desire into will. 
Instead of considering learning as an aim and in- 
terest a means, Herbart would make learning de- 
velop an interest that would last till the end of life. 
This kind of interest is called "direct interest" in 
opposition to "indirect interest" which pursues an 
object, not for its own sake but for some intel- 
lectual or material advantage. "The more the indi- 
rect interest predominates," says Herbart, "the 
more it leads to one-sidedness if not egotism." The 
one-sided individual approaches egotism even if he 
himself does not notice it; for he relates everything 
to the narrow circle for which he lives and thinks. 

160. Many-sided interest. — This expression is 
Herbart's. Many-sidedness must be distinguished 
from exaggeration, dabbling in many things. It is 
many-sided but not manifold. The man who is in- 
terested in art one day, then turns abruptly away 
from it to pursue science, then devotes himself 
wholly to sport, etc., has not a many-sided but a 
sporadic interest which, at bottom, is merely an- 
other expression for one-sideness. 



Principles of Education 71 

There is another kind of many-sided interest con- 
demned by Herbart. It is that interest which ex- 
pends itself in certain directions to the neglect of 
other directions. For instance, a teacher may take 
an interest in every one of his pupils but, at the 
same time, have such an interest in certain ones 
that he really neglects the others. Herbart 's many- 
sided interest means balanced, proportionate or equilbri- 
ous interest. In common language it means harmonious 
development of powers. 

Applying the idea of many-sideness of interest to 
the school, he writes: "One cannot expect that all 
the different classes of interest will unfold them- 
selves equally in every individual ; but among a 
large number of pupils they must all be expected 
and the demanded many-sideness will be all the 
better cultivated, the more even the single indi- 
vidual approaches a mental culture in which all 
those interests may stir with equal energy." — 
Lang, Outlines of Hcrbarfs Pedagogics, p. 21. 

161. Circle of thought. — The circle of thought 
for any pupil is the limit of personal interest of the 
pupil in the subject-matter of instruction, or in 
matters outside of the school. It is distinctly the 
work of education to extend the circle of thought 
so that the pupil may become interested in as many 
lines of investigation as he is capable of carrying 
on without reaching the result known as smatter- 
ing in education. The five-fold division of the course 
of study in our elementary schools illustrates a 
many-sided interest which should give every pupil 
the desired circle of thought to prepare him for 



J2 The Science of Education 

future efficiency. An application of extending the 
circle of thought, is found in Lang's Educational 
Creeds, page 150: "A boy spends his play hours in 
fishing, catching birds or butterflies; and he is in 
danger that his fine feeling, sympathetic heart will 
harden. Would punishment direct the content of 
his will to nobler pursuits? Would it thoroughly 
cure him? Certainly not. It would sooner increase 
the dangers. The thoughtful educator pursues a 
different course. He seeks to build up a new inter- 
est in the thought-circle of the boy. He calls his 
attention to the beauty of the flowers, explains 
to him their nature and various kinds, shows him 
how to raise plants and how to take care of them, 
how to press and dry them. The probabilities are 
that he will spend his recreation hours in culti- 
vating plants, in botanizing, and in making a her- 
barium." 

162. Dewey's doctrine of interest. — In Interest 
as Related to Will, Dr. John Dewey, of Columbia 
University, discredits the Hegelian theory of effort 
on the ground that the pupil's attention is divided 
during the performance of uninteresting tasks, the 
better part of the mental energy being permitted 
to wander to interesting considerations; and, sec- 
ondly, the performance of such tasks being per- 
functory, the will is not properly trained. Will- 
training is conditioned by the spirit or motive of 
the pupil. The Herbartian view of generating in- 
terest is likewise disapproved because it does not 
utilize self-expression. So Dr. Dewey concludes 
that interest is self-expression. His analysis shows 



Principles of Education 73 

that an appeal to interest does not eliminate effort; 
and that effort does not lose its value in education 
simply because it is pleasurable. 

163. Interest, effort, drudgery. — Much has been 
said and written about the respective values of the 
old and the new education in regard to making 
school work interesting for children. This is partly 
due to a misunderstanding of the various doctrines 
of interest ; but still there is a diversity of opinion 
among those who clearly grasp the different views 
of interest, and so you should formulate a definite 
written opinion upon this topic. The following ex- 
cerpts are suggestive. 

164. Home quoted. — "The true end of interest 
is not play, but work ; not amusement, but solid 
achievement; not diversion, but productive occupa- 
tion. Interest begins the process which effort ends. 
Interest is the path and effort the destination. For- 
tunate is he whose interest follows him within the 
gates of the city of his effort and takes up its 
abode with him there. Interest may be present in 
the final labor of effort, and is so in the final results 
of man's work, but it is necessary that the work be 
the fruitage of the interest. The essential thing 
is that the interest lead somewhere and be not mere 
pastime. Thus interest is the means to effort and 
effort is the end of interest. — Principles, p. 323. 

165. James makes interest and effort compati- 
ble. — After admitting that most school work is re- 
pulsive to pupils, he says: "The repulsive processes 
of verbal memorizing, of discovering steps of math- 
ematical identity, and the like, must borrow their 



74 The Science of Education 

interest at first from purely external sources, 
mainly from the personal interests with which suc- 
cess in mastering them is associated, such as gain- 
ing of rank,, avoiding punishment, not being beaten 
by a difficulty and the like. Without such bor- 
rowed interest, the child could not attend to them 
at all. But in these processes what becomes inter- 
esting enough to be attended to is not thereby at- 
tended to without effort. Effort always has to 
go on, derived interest, for the most part, not 
awakening attention that is easy, however spon- 
taneous it may now have to be called. The inter- 
est which the teacher, by his utmost skill, can lend 
to the subject, proves over and over again to be 
only an interest sufficient to let loose the effort. 
The teacher, therefore, need never concern himself 
about inventing occasions where effort must be 
called into play. Let him still awaken whatever 
sources of interest in the subject he can by stirring 
up connections between it and the pupil's nature, 
whether in the line of theoretic curiosity, of per- 
sonal interest, or of pugnacious impulse. The 
laws of mind will then bring enough pulses of effort 
into play to keep the pupil exercised in the direc- 
tion of the subject. There is, in fact, no greater 
school of effort than the ready struggle to attend 
to immediately repulsive or difficult objects of 
thought which have grown to interest us through 
their association as means, with some remote ideal 
end. 

The Herbartian doctrine of interest ought not, 
therefore, in principle to be reproached with mak- 



Principles of Education 75 

ing pedagogy soft. If it do so, it is because it is 
unintelligently carried on. Do not, then, for the 
mere sake of discipline, command attention from 
your pupils in thundering tones. Do not too often 
beg it from them as a favor, nor claim it as a right, 
nor try habitually to excite it by preaching the im- 
portance of the subject. Sometimes, indeed, you 
must do these things ; but, the more you have to do 
them, the less skillful teacher you will show your- 
self to be. Elicit interest comes from within, by 
the warmth with which you care for the topic your- 
self, and by following the laws I have laid down. — 
Talks, pp. 1 09- 1 10. 

166. Roark approves Herbartian doctrine. — 
The most important service rendered by Herbart, 
next to his showing the intrinsic economic value of 
interest in securing attention for rapid and effective 
work, was his insistence upon interest as desirable 
in itself, as a pleasant, comforting, and sustaining 
state of mind. The best and highest application 
of the doctrine sends students forth from any grade 
alert to see and hear the best, eager to know, open 
minded to the truth, full of noble aspirations. 

Herbart showed how the emotional nature, 
which had been for centuries condemned and sup- 
pressed in the schools, could be made the main- 
spring of right action and a source of legitimate 
joy. There is no conflict whatever between this 
idea of interest and the idea of duty, or even of the 
necessity of drudgery. The feeling of oughtness 
is innate in the human being, and the performance 
of duty gratifies this feeling and so prompts to the 



j6 The Science of Education 

further discharge of duty. So far from there be- 
ing antagonism between drudgery and interest, it 
is interest that makes the performance of drudgery 
possible. Drudgery may be defined as work which 
is uninteresting in itself, but must be done in order 
to the attainment of some end that is desired. In- 
terest carries the worker through the drudgery to 
the desired result, and hence the need that the 
teacher shall often direct the attention of the pupil 
to ultimate goals, fixing his interest upon them, 
and showing from biography, past and present, 
how faithful application to the present task will 
lead to the full satisfaction of his right ambitions. 
The function of the teacher is not to follow blindly 
the interests of the pupil, but to arouse in him in- 
terest in the work he ought to do. One of the 
highest pleasures comes through the consciousness 
of overcoming obstacles, of facing down a disa- 
greeable thing, to reach something finally worth 
while. — Economy in Education, p. 215. 

167. How to secure attention. 

1. Teach pupils how to work: consciousness of 
power to accomplish something. 

2. Sympathy, leadership, recognition of meri- 
torious results. 

3. Adaptation through proper grading and 
grouping: discouragement obviated. 

4. Useful methods in teaching: graphic, varied; 
processes worthy of imitation when pupil is study- 
ing alone. 

168. Relation of attention and interest. — At- 
tention and interest are so closely related that 



Principles of Education 77 

one cannot persist without the other. Which comes 
first ? Put your thought into practical ways of se- 
curing and retaining both and then answer the 
question by interpreting results. Attention is an 
attitude of mind and body growing out of and en- 
forcing a feeling called interest. Both attention 
and interest are habits. 

Apperception 

169. Importance of apperception. — The simplest 
analysis of mental activity will reveal the import- 
ance of apperception in education. It is implied, of 
course, that perception precedes apperception; but 
after the first percept became a mental possession, 
every subsequent act of getting a percept employed 
apperception. Likewise in memory and all other 
manifestations of mind. Without apperception, no 
knowledge is possible; and without activity, no ap- 
perception is possible. Thus education itself is con- 
ditioned by the quality and the quantity of self- 
activity in the apperceptive process. 

170. Apperception defined. — Mental assimila- 
tion, or the interpretation of new knowledge in the 
light of that previously obtained, is apperception. 

171. Apperception is the process by which a 
mass of presentations assimilate relatively new ele- 
ments, the whole forming a system. The new ma- 
terial assimilated may be either given in sensation 
or reproduced by the internal working of the 
psychological mechanism ; and attention, in the 
broad sense of noticing an object, coincides in the 



78 The Science of Education 

main, but not altogether, with the apperceptive 
process. 

172. The process of attention in so far as it in- 
volves interaction between the presentation of the 
object attended to, on the one hand, and the total 
preceding conscious content, together with pre- 
formed mental dispositions on the other hand. — 
Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology. 

173. Derivation of the word apperception. — The 
word "apperceive" is derived from ad, to, pcrcepere, 
to grasp or to clasp. It literally signifies the grasp- 
ing or clasping of one thing to another, a uniting, 
adhesive process. But the Latin verb also means 
to see or perceive: so that taken figuratively apper- 
ceive means to see or perceive one tiling by way of 
another, or the coalescence of a new idea with an old 
one by modification. — Burk A. Hinsdale. 

174. Apperception is synthesis. — The term is 
largely used by educational writers to characterize 
the synthesis of new with old experiences. New 
acquisitions of knowledge become significant only 
to the extent of the interpreting power of our 
former acquisitions. This being the case, the apper- 
ceptive power of the mind is a constantly developing 
capacity as the child increases in years, knowledge 
and mental alertness. Modern child-study empha- 
sizes the fact that the subject-matter of instruction, 
together with the sequence of its topics, and the 
time of its presentation, should be covered by the 
child's power to apperceive. Furthermore, methods 
pf teaching and of moral training should take their 



Principles of Education 79 

cue from the same changeable power. — DeGarmo in 
the Dictionary of Philosophy. 

175. Processes in apperception. — The Herbar- 
tian interpretation of this mental activity may be 
expressed in modified form, as follows : 

1. A perception calls up older related ideas. 

2. These older ideas, which we call apper- 
ceiving ideas, or apperceiving mass, come forward 
to meet the perception. 

3. Assimilation follows, that is, the new and the 
older ideas mutually change each other so as to 
bring about similarity. 

4. The two ideas (or masses of ideas) are 
blended in consciousness. 

5. The enlarged idea produced by assimilation 
takes its place in the circle of thought and becomes 
a new apperceiving basis for subsequent use. 

1 76. Gordy's analysis of apperception. — We see 
also in what this activity consists. It is a relating 
activity — in sensation, bringing characterless expe- 
riences into relations of likeness and difference; in 
perception, combining sensations into relations of 
space ; in memory, combining the various elements 
of experience into relations of time; in conception, 
percepts into relations of likeness; in judgment, 
combining percepts and concepts into the various 
relations of reality apprehended by the mind. If, 
then, we adopt the name usually applied to this ac- 
tivity and call it apperception, we see that apper- 
ception is that combining activity of the mind 
that brings order and harmony into our mental life 



80 The Science of Education 

by transforming the consciousness of related facts 
"into the consciousness of relations." 

Apperception, then — of which, indeed, discrimi- 
nation and assimilation are modes — is the most 
fundamental form of mental activity. It makes sen- 
sations, and then, in the form of discrimination,, 
separates those that are unlike and assimilates those 
that are alike; it discovers the space relations of 
sensation, transforms them into attributes of 
bodies, and then discriminates the objects so per- 
ceived that are unlike, and assimilates those that 
are alike; it discerns the time relations of mental 
facts, and transforms a succession of experiences 
into a consciousness of succession; it combines per- 
cepts into concepts, percepts and concepts into 
judgments, judgments into conclusions. — New 
Psychology, pp. 352, 353. 

177. Apperception related to interest. — Three 
conditions are mentioned in getting the relation of 
apperception to interest. If perceptions or sensa- 
tions are quickly blended with the apperceiving 
ideas, there is facility of apperception. Facility 
gives rise to a feeling of delight. "This, in turn, 
awakens the wish to have the same mental activity 
repeated, and produces a need to continue the occu- 
pation with the object that caused delight. Hence 
it is the facility, the delight,, and the need which make 
the apperception to that which Herbart calls in- 
terest." 

178. The teacher's problem. — These sections on 
apperception suggest a desirable scope of inquiry 
for students. The teacher's problem is not easily 



Principles of Education 8i 

stated in a sentence, since every teaching act re- 
quires adjustment to the needs of individual pupils. 
In teaching pupils how to observe, does not the 
process become one of adapting the varying ca- 
pacities to the object? The apprehension of details 
is nothing more than effectual apperception. In 
training the memory, we think of apprehension, re- 
tention, and reproduction. Not one of these can 
be considered as a psychical process apart from ap- 
perception. What can be done with reasoning and 
judgment without going to apperception as funda- 
mental? Comparison of ideas implies the holding 
of ideas in the mind while similarity and contrast 
enable the thinker to accept or reject. Thus the 
teacher's problem is to harmonize personality, mat- 
ter and method in establishing relationships be- 
tween the new and the old. The maxim, from the 
knozvn to the related unknown, has pertinent sig- 
nificance here. 

Self -Activity 

179. Self-activity is instinctive. — The axiomatic 
meaning of this word suggests at once the charac- 
teristic instinct of all normal children. It seems al- 
most useless to ask students to deal with obscure 
definitions of this term ; better look to the one large 
purpose of all educational agencies, namely, to or- 
ganize the tendencies of activity. This organiza- 
tion requires interpretation, aims, process and. re- 
sults in both theory and practice. 

180. Self-activity defined. — It is not easy to de- 
fine self-activity, but every teacher knows that ac- 
tivity, physical and psychical, is a charateristic of 



82 The Science of Education 

childhood. If education means an adjustment to 
environment, it needs no argument to show that all 
activities should be directed toward the highest 
possible degree of useful efficiency. Under such 
a view self-activity means self-realization. Other 
definitions follow: 

Self-activity, as a principle in consciousness, 
means self-direction. — Home. 

Conscious effort in the evolution of possibilities is 
termed self-activity. — Boyer. 

Self-activity is activity "that contains its primal 
impulse within itself" ; it is activity that is self-con 7 
scious, self-asserting, self-determined, self-express- 
ing, and in the largest sense self-realizing. Self-ac- 
tivity is thus another name for the activity of spirit; 
and the problem of self-activity is seen to be one 
phase of the problem of spirit ; how to maintain the 
primacy of spirit ; how to nourish and promote 
the life of spirit. — Hervey. 

181. Opportunities for activity. — It is a duty of 
the teacher to give the child every possible oppor- 
tunity and incentive for expressing himself — in lan- 
guage, in gesture, in vocal music; in various forms 
of play; in constructive activity with pencil, brush, 
tools, or the hand. 

The child who learns at school to draw, to model, 
to paint, to sew, to cook, to make things in wood 
and iron, to sing, to speak and write effectively, to 
carry himself in a way that expresses his character, 
finds within himself a fund of resourcefulness, a de- 
gree of self-poise and efficiency, and a capacity for 



Principles of Education 83 

enjoying life, which passes the understanding of 
those who have not had such advantages. 

It is error to suppose that creative activity- 
is limited to the making of external products. There 
is an element of such activity possible in every 
educative exercise, just as the lack of it is apparent 
in an ill-conducted class in manual training. The 
teacher should aim to evoke the highest possible 
degree of self-activity in every legitimate form, in 
every exercise. — IV. L. Hervey, in Teachers' Mono- 
graphs, October, 1901. 

182. Thorndike on limitations of activity. — This 
principle should not be misunderstood. It does not 
mean that pupils should be encouraged or permit- 
ted to enjoy unrestrained activity. It means mental, 
moral and physical activity under the direction of 
the teacher. Such direction leads to proper habitua- 
tion. 

Least of all should anyone confuse self-activity 
with bodily activity, or take responses to mean only 
gross physical movements. The child who sits 
quietly absorbed in solving a problem is more active 
and more truly active than his neighbor in the next 
seat who is jumping up and down with glee at get- 
ting the answer. The activity of thought indeed 
often involves the cessation of many bodily ac- 
tions. — Principles of Teaching, p. 40. 

183. Substitution applied. — The aim in success- 
ful teaching is to utilize instructive activity by di- 
recting it into habits of useful application. It is no 
longer justifiable to ask children to sit still for long 
periods; nature never intended human beings to be- 



84 The Science of Education 

come fixed machines. An aim or ideal is always 
made prominent as a stimulus to the intellect; 
through the feelings or interest, children are given 
a desire to attain the established aim ; and then the 
will encourages activity toward the accomplishment 
of the desired end. Thus activity along desirable 
lines becomes a unification of mental, moral and 
physical effort. The habit of directed activity takes 
the place of inhibited action under enforced silence. 

Suggestive Topics 

184. Give a simple definition of apperception. 

185. Explain clearly what is meant by the apper- 
ceiving group. 

186. Show the relation of' attention to apper- 
ception. 

187. Discuss three probable causes of defective 
apperception. Give remedies. 

188. Show how these four principles of educa- 
tion are practically applied in teaching pupils how 
to care for the school grounds. 

189. Mention ten additional opportunities., 
aside from text-book study, for the utilization of 
self-activity. (Think of cleaning blackboards and 
show its educational value here.) 

igo. In celebrating Memorial Day, how could 
the four principles be made operative in securing a 
desirable concept? State specifically what concept 
you aim to make. 

191. Is stillness during the study. hour incom- 
patible with vigorous mental activity? Compare 
Thorndike's conclusion in section 182. 



Principles of Education 85 

192. Define self-activity. 

193. References on apperception. — The import- 
ance attached to this one unifying process is likely 
to make apperception the leading topic in future 
classifications of principles of teaching. For this 
reason, several references are given. 

DeGarmo. Essentials of Method, chapters II, III. 

DeGarmo. Herbart, Part II, chapter VII. 

DuxTER and Garuck. Psychology in the Schoolroom, 

chapter XIII. 
Dewey. Psychology, pp. 85-90. 
Gordy. New Psychology, pp. 346-364. 
Harris. Herbart and Pestalozzi Compared, Ed. Rev., 

May, 1893. 
James. Talks to Teachers, chapter XIV. 
Lang. Outline of Herbart 's Pedagogics. 
LangE. Apperception. 

McMurry. Elements of General Method, chapter VI. 
O'Shea. Education as Adjustment, chapter XIII. 
Rooper. A Pot of Green Feathers. 
Stout. Analytic Psychology, Vol. II, chapter VIII. 
Stout. Manual of Psychology, Book III, chapter I. 
Thorndike. Principles of Teaching, chapter IV. 
Wither. Analytic Psychology, chapter I. 



CHAPTER VII 
INSTINCT AND HABIT 

194. Recent opinion. — Recent investigation 
has tended to put the consideration of instincts 
into a place of prominence among educational es- 
sentials. Instead of treating instincts as character- 
istics of the lower orders of animals alone, we re- 
gard instincts as human tendencies which are 
worthy of direction. 

195. Instinct denned. — An instinct is a useful 
act without prevision of the end in view. — Home. 

2. Instincts are called race habits, — habits ac- 
quired through the lifetime of a species, or perhaps 
an order, instead of during the life of an individual. 

3. An inherited reaction of the sensori-motor 
type, relatively complex and markely adaptive in 
character, and common to a group of individuals, 
is instinct. — Dictionary of Philosophy. 

196. Human instincts. — Bolton gives a long list 
and then makes a helpful distinction. Two para- 
graphs are quoted. 

Among the most readily apparent human in- 
stincts the following are typical : Sucking, biting, 
clasping with fingers or toes, carrying objects to 
the mouth in childhood, crying, smiling, protrusion 

86 



Instinct and Habit 87 

of the lips, frowning, gesturing, holding the head 
erect, sitting up, standing, creeping, walking, 
climbing, imitation, talking, emulation, rivalry, 
pugnacity, anger, resentment, sympathy, the hunt- 
ing instinct, migration; a great many fears or pho- 
bias, as of high places, dark places, strange objects ; 
acquisitiveness, constructiveness, play, curiosity, 
gregariousness, bashfulness, cleanliness, modesty, 
shame, love, parental feelings, home-making, jeal- 
ousy, pity. The list might be made vastly longer. 
In fact, man is a great complex of tendencies to 
acting, feeling, and thinking in a great variety of 
directions. These impulses are all instincts. Should 
some one argue that such a phenomenon as speech 
is not instinctive, but a result of imitation, I would 
make the rejoinder: "Then why does not my dog 
learn to speak the same as my child?" They both 
have the opportunity of hearing and imitating. The 
very fact that my child learns- to speak while my 
dog does not is evidence that my child possesses 
a potentiality which my dog does not possess. This 
tendency or impulse is an instinct. Why is it possi- 
ble for the cat, carried miles away in a bag, to find 
its way back unerringly? Or why can the homing 
pigeons and the bee fly in "bee lines," while we 
human beings make such sorry mistakes concern- 
ing directions? Because the cat, the pigeon, and 
the bee have potentialities which we do not possess. 
Any activities or tendencies to action which are 
unversally possessed by a race or species, — which 
do not have to be learned by the individuals, or 
which are learned by individuals with great readi- 



88 The Science of Education 

ness, may be considered as instincts. — Principles of 
Education, p. 151. 

197. Important instincts in education. — It is 
advisable to select the most prominent instincts or 
native impulses for the purpose of considering each 
one in relation to daily teaching. A list follows: 

Physical activity. Ownership. 

Mental Activity. Kindliness. 

Imitation. Love. 

Curiosity. Selfishness. 

Sociability. Pugnacity. 

Play. Independence. 

Constructiveness. Defiance. 

198. Thorndike quoted. — The following in- 
stincts are of special importance in school educa- 
tion: — (1) Mental Activity, — the tendency to be 
thinking in some way or another, to avoid mental 
apathy. (2) Curiosity, — a special aspect of the in- 
stinct of general mental activity; the tendency to 
provoke ideas, especially in the presence of new 
situations. (3) Physical Activity, — The tendency 
to be doing something, to avoid bodily torpor. (4) 
Manipulation,, — a special aspect of the instinct of 
general activity; the tendency to handle objects, to 
move them, take them apart, reunite them, etc., 
etc. (5) Collecting. (6) Ownership. (7) Socia- 
bility. (8) Emulation. (9) Kindliness. (10) Pug- 
nacity and Mastery. (11) Independence and De- 
fiance. — Principles, p. 24. 

199. Desirable or undesirable instincts. — 
Writers differ in making classifications under these 
two kinds. Many educators are inclined to believe 



Instinct and Habit 89 

that there are no bad instincts, but there are un- 
desirable instincts. Selfishness is undesirable, not 
bad. Education must accept selfish promptings as* 
an indication of latent power which can be directed 
to good ends by substitution. So, too, with pug- 
nacity, independence and defiance. 

200. Aim in treating instincts. — We have said 
before that modern education accepts instincts as 
human tendencies that are subject to training by 
education; that direction of impulses toward desir- 
able activity is better than curbing by authority; 
and that the period of human infancy permits de- 
velopment from purely instinctive action to rational 
self-control. The aim in treating instincts is, there- 
fore, to encourage activity by directing native im- 
pulses through habit to self-realization. 

Laws for Training Instincts 

201. Inhibition. — The use of this word in educa- 
tion means the withholding of a tendency or an act 
for the purpose of forming the habit of self-control. 
Inhibition is used largely in reference to undesir- 
able tendencies, such as lying, cheating, stealing; 
but the term applies as well in helping nervous chil- 
dren gain confidence, in keeping conscientious pu- 
pils from over-work, or in bringing scrupulous chil- 
dren to a safe standard of right living. Inhibition 
applies whenever we help pupils to work toward a 
more desirable ideal. Why is this psychologically 
true ? 

202. Disuse. — Disuse is frequently classified as 
a kind of inhibition, but it is rather the effect of 
inhibition. In a physical organism, an unused or- 



90 The Science of Education 

gan is likely to become atrophied. The strength 
of a muscle varies according to use or exercise. 
The same is true of psychical life; repetition is a 
necessity for the retention of facts. The theory 
of disuse applied to instincts means simply that an 
unused instinct fades away. Apply to cheating 
on examinations. 

203. Suggestion from Thorndike. — Disuse is 
convenient and is an excellent method to employ 
when the harmful tendency is transitory, but it 
is never quite sure. Punishment is ineffective in 
the case of very strong instincts. To be of service 
in any case, it must be so administered as to con- 
nect the discomfort closely with the harmful act. 
Substitution is in most cases by far the best 
method for the teacher's use. Habits of care for 
pets are the best preventive of cruelty to animals; 
to divide a class into two groups and give marks 
to the groups instead of individuals — to substitute, 
that is, team emulation for individual emulation, — 
may be the best cure for selfish ambition and envy; 
for a restless class manual work is better than 
scolding. — Principles of Teaching,, p. 23. 

204. Inhibition by substitution. — It is clear that 
disuse cannot be made effective unless we supply 
a substitute to satisfy human activity. So the 
whole process of mental, physical and moral educa- 
tion is a continuous effort in establishing more de- 
sirable thoughts, language and deeds than children 
would experience without the aid of education. 



Instinct and Habit 91 

Here, as elsewhere, the word education includes all 
the agencies discussed in preceding chapters. 

205. Inhibition by repression. — This kind of 
training does not utilize the law of self-activity. 
Corporal punishment illustrates inhibition by re- 
pression. The evil tendency of the child may be 
inhibited temporarily by fear or pain, but no de- 
sirable occupation or habit is assured after the 
sense of fear passes away. For a suitable' remedy, 
go back to the law of subtitution. 

The application of this law of repression is a de- 
batable matter. Should it never be used? Inter- 
pret the psychology of your own experience and 
then frame an opinion. 

Theory Applied 

206. Pugnacity directed to good use. — This 
quotation from James expresses the thought of the 
majority of experienced teachers. 

Pride and pugnacity have often been considered 
unworthy passions to appeal to in the young. But 
in their more refined and noble forms they play 
a great part in the schoolroom and in education 
generally, being in some characters most potent 
spurs to effort. Pugnacity need not be thought of 
merely in the form of physical combativeness. It 
can be taken in the sense of a general unwillingness 
to be beaten by any kind of difficulty. It is what 
makes us feel "stumped" and challenged by arduous 
achievements, and is essential to a spirited and en- 
terprising character. We have of late been hearing 
much of the philosophy of tenderness in educa- 
tion; "interest" must be assiduously awakened in 



92 The Science of Education 

everything, difficulties must be smoothed away. 
Soft pedagogics have taken the place of the old 
steep and rocky path to learning. But from this 
lukewarm air the bracing oxygen of effort is left 
out. It is nonsense to suppose that every step in 
education can be interesting. The fighting impulse 
must often be appealed to. Make the pupil feel 
ashamed of being scared by fractions, of being 
"downed" by the law of falling bodies, rouse his 
pugnacity and pride, and he will rush at the difficult 
places with a sort of inner wrath at himself that is 
one of his best moral faculties. A victory scored 
under such conditions becomes a turning-point and 
crisis of his character. It represents the high-water 
mark of his powers and serves thereafter as an ideal 
pattern for his self-imitation. The teacher who 
never rouses this sort of pugnacious excitement in 
his pupils falls short of one of his best forms of 
usefulness. — Talks to Teachers, p. 54. 

207. Home on use of instincts. — Children are 
naturally constructive? Then provide courses in 
manual training and domestic science. Children 
are full of play? Then provide ample recesses and 
good games, and recognize play as a legitimate 
educator and not as a necessary waste of time. 
Children are acquisitive? Then provide shelves for 
natural history specimens, encourage collections 
of stamps, pictures, flowers, etc. Children obey 
the group or gang impulse? Then let home and 
school unite in organizing proper bands and clubs. 
Children have a curiosity surpassing that of any 
other creature? Then answer patiently their ques- 



Instinct and Habit 93 

tion "Why?" as far as they are able to comprehend, 
and suggest further related questions to engage 
and develop their interest. Children have primitive 
fears? Arouse them, not by hobgoblin stories, but 
make the unavoidable consequences of wrong- 
doing such as justly to excite their fear. Children 
so easily fly into a passion? When the fury is 
past, show the boy some wrong inflicted upon the 
innocent, and let his anger kindle as a flame to right 
it. Children are secretive? Agree with them to 
keep all evil reports about another. Children are 
so emulous of each other? Confront each one with 
his own weak past self to excel. They are envious 
of another's good fortune? Point to some man of 
good character as having the best treasure and 
secure hero-worship. — Principles, p. 268. 

Habit 

208. Relation of habit to education. — Long ago 
Rousseau said, "Education is certainly nothing but 
a formation of habits." This truth becomes more 
vivid when we stop to give reasons for the countless 
acts in the course of ten of fifteen years of school 
life. The whole period of infancy, wdiether covered 
by school education or not, is a time of habituation. 
Plasticity is conducive to development in accord- 
ance with environment. All the subsequent ex- 
periences modify the habits of infancy, but it is 
strictly true, in theory and practice, that the aim 
of all training is to form useful habits. 



94 The ^Science of Education 

Habit DeHned 

209. Habit is that manner of doing or living 
which characterizes the individuality of man. — 
Sabin. 

210. A fixed tendency to think, feel, or act in a 
particular way is a habit. 

211. Power or ability in man of doing anything 
when it has been acquired by frequent doing of the 
same thing, we call habit. — Locke. 

212. Fundamental laws. — Three laws plainly 
stated are these : 

1. Ideal. Ideal must be established to produce 
a motive. This appeals to the intellect, feelings 
and will. 

2. Plasticity. As nature guarantees this in 
youth, the educator's duty is to make use of it. 

3. Regular repetition. The intensity of the im- 
pression can be made effectual only by regular repe- 
tition. Spasmodic effort cannot produce continuity 
of thinking. 

213. Habits worth forming. — It has been said 
that industry, obedience and courtesy are three 
habits that assure success. Larger lists are given 
in text-books on school management, but perhaps 
two opinions are enough : 

By Dr. White — By Dr. Maxwell — 
Regularity. Neatness. 

Punctuality. Order. 

Neatness. Punctuality. 

Accuracy. Good Posture, 



Instinct and Habit 95 

Silence. Courtesy. 

Industry. Obedience, then respect. 

Obedience. Self-control. 

Helpfulness to others. 

214. Bagley on how to form habits. — "Focaliza- 
tion of consciousness upon the process to be auto- 
matized, plus attentive repetition of this process, 
permitting no exceptions until automatism results." 

215. Home on how to form habits. — Quoted 
from Psychological Principles of Education, p. 300. 

"First, act on every opportunity. 

"Second, make a strong start. 

"Third, allow no exception. 

"Fourth, for the bad habits substitute something 
good. 

"And, fifth, summoning all the man within, use 
effort of will." 

216. James on how to form habits. 

1. "Launch ourselves with as strong and decided 
an initiative as possible. 

2. "Never suffer one exception to accrue till the 
new habit is securely rooted in your life. 

3. "Seize the very first opportunity to act on 
every resolution you make, and on every emotional 
prompting you may experience in the direction of 
the habit you aspire to gain. 

4. "Keep the faculty of effort alive in you by a 
little gratuitous exercise every day." 

217. Rowe on how to form habits. — As pre- 
liminaries to habit-getting, (a) decide what habit is 
to be formed, (b) determine the stimuli or situa- 
tions evoking the reaction, (c) know definitely the 



96 The Science of Education 

essentials of the best reaction. A teacher may ful- 
fill these requirements automatically without con- 
sciousness of the fact. If they are not fulfilled, 
whether consciously or not, only confusion results. 
When fulfilled, the teacher is in position to 
demonstrate the habit and teaching may begin, involv- 
ing three additional factors — (a) working up a 
strong initiative, (b) securing abundant and genu- 
ine practice (repetition in attention), (c) preventing 
exceptions. The recommendations of James, 
Thorndike, Home, Bagley, Dumont, and Curtmann 
either concur with these or offer suggestions for 
the formation of habit which may be reconciled with 
the four main divisions of the methodolgy of habit 
stated above. — Habit Formation, p. 94. 

Review Questions 

218. Define instinct. Authority? 

219. Define habit. Authority? 

220. Make a list of eight instincts used in daily 
school work. 

221. Apply the law of substitution to laziness. 
Tell specifically what you do in helping a lazy pupil 
form a habit of industry. 

222. "The great thing in all education is to 
make our nervous system our ally instead of our 
enemy." 

Discuss this excerpt from James. If it is not 
clear, read Talks to Teachers, p. 66. 

223. Such school evils as carelessness, laziness, 
tardiness, truancy, whispering, lying, cheating, 
stealing, impudence and rebellion should be sup- 



Instinct and Habit 97 

planted by the school virtues accuracy, industry, 
neatness,, politeness, truthfulness, honesty, justice, 
punctuality, co-operation and obedience. The 
transition is a process of gradual habituation. Show 
the truth of this view. 

224. Take opinion of Home or James or Rowe 
and apply it to the teaching of a topic in high 
school work. 

225. James says all instincts are impulses. What 
does he mean? Define impulsive action. 

226. Show how you utilize the substance of this 
chapter in teaching pupils how to study. Choose a 
specified topic and then apply the laws of instincts 
and habits to (a) study period in school, (b) study 
during recitation period, (c) home study. 

227. References on instinct. 

Angell. Psychology, chapters XV, XVI. 
Baldwin. Story of Mind, chapter III. 
James. Briefer Psychology, chapter XXV. 
James. Talks to Teachers, chapters II, VIII. 
Morgan. Habit and Instinct, chapters II, VI, 

IX, X. 
Rowe. Habit Formation, chapter V. 
Thorndike. Elements of Psychology, pages 

187-191. 

228. References on habit. — Consult references 
in 227. Make a careful study of Rowe's Habit For- 
mation. 



CHAPTER VIII 
DEFINITIONS IN PSYCHOLOGY 

229. Scope of chapter. — These definitions are 
the ones covering the terms frequently used in 
the science of education. Other terms are used 
and other definitions are accepted, but this list is 
adequate for our purposes. A good text in psychol- 
ogy is needed by every student. 

230. Abbreviations used in this chapter. — For 
convenience in consulting books which are easily 
secured in schools or libraries, the following abbre- 
viations are used: 

B. P. Baldwin, Psychology Applied to the Art of 

Teaching. 
D. Dexter and Gareick, Psychology in the 

Schoolroom. 
Go. Gordy, New Psychology. 
H. HaleEck, Psychology and Psychic Culture. 
J. James, Talks to Teachers on Psychology, and 

to Students on Some of Life's Ideals. 
M. McLeeean, Applied Psychology. 
R. P. PvOark, Psychology in Education. 

231. Consciousness. — Consciousness is the 
name given to all possible mental operations. — D., 
2, 28; J., 15-20; H., 44-49; B - p -> 3 J -33- 

98 



Definitions in Psychology 99 

232. Mind. — Mind is a spiritual force that mani- 
fests itself in knowing, feeling, and willing. 

For the general functions of mind, see B. P., 3-8, 
35 ; D., 6, 7, 19-22 ; H., 49-52 ; J. 22-28. 

233. Phases of mind. — The three phases of mind 
are intellect or knowing, feeling or emotion, and 
willing or volition. — D., 19; G., 163, 208; H., 51; 
R. P., 42, 67. 

234. Knowing. — Knowing is the act of affirming 
the certainty of states of consciousness. 

235. Feeling. — Feeling is a term that indicates 
pleasant or painful states of consciousness. 

236. Willing. — Willing is the act of the mind in 
making a choice of desires. 

237. Will. — The will is the power which oper- 
ates in the mind in willing. 

238. Faculties. — A faculty is a mental power 
which acts upon objects, external or internal, and 
discriminates them from one another. We must 
not, however, think of the mind as composed of 
separate faculties. The mind is a unit, but it can 
manifest itself in different ways; and for con- 
venience we shall use the word faculties to indicate 
the different manifestations of power. 

239. Object, action, product of a faculty. — That 
on which the mind acts in the exercise of any fac- 
ulty is termed the object of that faculty. I hear a 
peal of thunder; the sound so heard is the object of 
the faculty of hearing. The action of this faculty is 
called listening; the product of such action on the 
object referred to is a notion or idea of the sound of 
thunder. — Welch, Teachers' Psychology, p. 4. 



ioo The Science of Education 

240. Illustration of 239. — In teaching, the sub- 
ject matter of instruction is the object; the princi- 
ples of education are applied in the action ; and the 
product is the ultimate purpose of all education. 

241. Presentative faculties. — The three usually 
called presentative are sensation, perception and 
observation. 

242. Representative faculty. — Memory is repre- 
sentative. It is taken up under these points: 

Passive, remembering; active, recollecting; the 
three steps — apprehension, retention, reproduction; 
the laws of association; mnemonics. — B. P., 96-99,' 
105-111; D., 110-116, 118-124; Go., 234-240; H., 
101-112; J., 1 16-132; R. P., 79-90, no. 

243. Elaborative faculties. — The faculties in- 
volved in these thought processes are perception, 
imagination, conception, judgment and reason- 
ing.— R. P., 79, 109-114; D., 140-143; Go -, 2 55" 262 ; 
B. P., 102-104, 144; H., 150-158. 

244. Sensation. — A sensation is a state of con- 
sciousness resulting from nerve action. — Halleck, 

P- 59- 

A sensation is a simple mental state resulting 
from the stimulation or excitation of the outer or 
peripheral extremity of an incarrying or sensitive 
nerve.— Sully. B. P., 18-30; D., 47-5 1 ; H -> 59" 6 5- 

245. Perception. — Perception is the general 
name of a faculty through whose action the mind 
gains knowledge, whether of things without or 
within ourselves. Sense-perception is the faculty 
which supplies the mind with knowledge of ex- 
ternal objects through the action of the senses of 



Definitions in Psychology ioi 

touch, sight and hearing - . In exposure to a storm I 
see, hear, and feel the driving rain. In this act of 
sense-perception the senses employed are those 
of touch, sight,, and hearing. The object is the 
driving rain; the acts put forth are feeling, seeing, 
and hearing; and the product of these acts, while in 
progress, is a notion or percept of the rain. The 
percept in this case unites in itself the elements 
gained from feeling, seeing, and hearing. If the 
object of my sense-perception had been a thing 
which was visible but not tangible, or audible, as 
a picture, a cloud, or a rainbow, the percept would 
have contained only the elements gained from the 
act of a sight. — Welch, p. 5. 

B. P., 38-40; D., 57-61 ;H.„ 67-76. 

246. Observation. — The special function of the 
senses is sensation, a responding to any external 
stimulus that affects nerve tissue. The correspond- 
ing function of the mind in referring these sensa- 
tions to their external cause is perception. Sensa- 
tion and perception taken together may be called 
observation. — R. P., 68. 

B. P., 91 ; D., 82-84; Go., 227-228. 

247. Simple definition of observation. — Obser- 
vation is the act of looking at a thing closely so 
as to take note of its several details and parts. 

248. Memory. — Memory is the faculty which 
unconsciously receives, retains, and restores, the 
products or ideas gained through the action of the 
other faculties. — Welch, p. 6. 

D., 110-116; J., 1 16-132; H., 101-112; B. P., 96-99, 
105-111 ; Go., 234-240; R. P., 79-90, no. 



I02 The Science of Education 

249. Imagination. — The process of making im- 
ages is imagination. An image is a revived percept. 

250. Conception. — Conception is a mental pro- 
cess which results in a concept. — D., 150. 

251. Concept. — A concept is a re-presentation in 
our minds answering to a general name. — Sully. 

252. — Judgment. — A judgment is an assertion of 
agreement or disagreement between two ideas. — 
D., 163. 

253. Reasoning. — Reasoning is the faculty that 
derives new truths or concepts from class concepts 
already known. — Welch, p. 11. 

254. Attention, etc. — For attention, interest, 
apperception and self-activity, see chapter VI. 

Divisions and Distinctions 

255. Percept and perception. — A percept is a 
psychical product ; perception is the process and it 
is largely physical. A percept may be compared 
with a particular notion. 

256. Concept and conception. — Concept is the 
mental product; conception is the process. A con- 
cept is known as general notion, notion, or idea. 

257. Particular notion. — The knowledge gained 
about any individual thing is a particular notion. 
Our first acquaintance with any individual object 
gives us a particular notion. Percepts are indi- 
vidual notions gained through the senses; but inner 
observation may likewise produce a particular no- 
tion. DeGarmo says our knowledge starts with 
individual notions (Esssentials of Method, page 17), 
but others dispute this statement. 



Definitions in Psychology 103 

258. General notions. — The passing from par- 
ticular to general by the process of generalization 
gives the general notion or concept. Common 
nouns usually express what the mind holds as a 
general notion. 

259. Abstraction. — The mental process of pass- 
ing from concrete particulars to the idea expressed 
by laws, rules, definitions., or general truths, is ab- 
straction. The mind actually draws away the es- 
sentials to be combined in the concept. 

Abstraction: another meaning. — In learning 
how to study, the pupil avoids distractions by 
fixing his attention on the point to be mastered. 
The act of drawing the mind away from non-essen- 
tials, or essentials that are diverting attention, is 
called abstraction. The derivation of the word sug- 
gests the meaning. 

260. Concentration. — The act of fixing the at- 
tention on a desired object is concentration of men- 
tal power. Intensive study or any other form of 
mental application is known as concentration of 
mind. Note how many of these conceptions go 
back to the principles of education. 

261. Suggestion. — Suggestion is the tendency 
of consciousness to believe in and act on any given 
idea. — Home, Principles, p. 284. 

262. Order of developing faculties. — The nat- 
ural order of development is perception, memory, 
imagination, conception, judgment and reasoning. 
But since the mind is a unit, the development of one 
implies the use of the others. 

263. Habituation. — The series of acts in the 



104 The Science of Education 

formation of habits is habituation. Habit is a re- 
sult; habituation is a process. 

264. Visualization. — The act of learning by see- 
ing things as they are, is visualization. Apply the 
foregoing terms — suggestion,, concentration, ab- 
straction. 

265. Mind-wandering. — The tendency of mind 
to go away from a present object of effort is called 
mind-wandering. Does it indicate less concentra- 
tion of effort? James says mind-wandering is not 
always fatal to mental efficiency. If one really cares 
for a subject, the mind will return to it after wan- 
dering in other*fields and will get more out of it 
than another mind which works continuously but 
less intensely. — (Talks, 114). 

266. Impulsive action. — See instinct. 

267. Reflex action. — Reflex action is the power 
possessed by the spinal cord and medulla oblongata 
of transforming afferent into efferent impulses 
without the interposition of the brain. — Dexter and 
Garlick, 15. 

268. Reaction. — Reaction is response to stimu- 
lation. See Methods in Education, p. 42. 

269. Ideo-motor action. — An action resulting 
from an idea in consciousness is ideo-motor action. 
In youth, impulsive action is frequent; in adult life, 
inhibition operates more frequently. 

270. Motivation. — Motivation is literally the 
moving or influencing a person by an ideal. In 
school work, motivation has reference to the pur- 
posive effort stimulated or caused by an effectual 
appeal to intellect, feelings and will. 



CHAPTER IX. 
ADOLESCENCE 

The Boy and the Girl in the High School 
By Professor J. M. Tyler, of Amherst College 



271. The girl at sixteen has attained her full 
height and practically her adult weight, though 
this increases in both sexes far into adult life. The 
boy has somewhat still to gain in both respects. 
The lungs of the boy have increased markedly in 
capacity at fourteen and again at sixteen. In the 
girl the increase is far less marked or regular. The 
heart, which was small at eight and eleven, has 
gained greatly in capacity during puberty. In a 
few years its increase may amount to one hundred 
or even more cubic centimeters, a gain of more 
than sixty per cent. The same increase takes place 
in the girl in a shorter space of time, sometimes in 
two years. The arteries have expanded much less 
than the heart. Hence the blood pressure is high. 

272. The brain has attained practically its full 
size and weight, though it may increase very slowly 

105 



106 The Science of Education 

until after the thirtieth year. The sensory and 
motor centers are fully matured. The higher men- 
tal areas are in a stage when a good amount of 
exercise will do them no harm. The logical pow- 
ers are increasing fast. The boy often argues from 
the love of debate quite as much as from the desire 
to attain the truth. Mortality, though rising, is 
still low. Morbidity ought to be low at this time, 
but sometimes or often it remains high in the girl. 
In both sexes there is a rise and maximum of sick- 
ness at the close of growth, which healthy training 
and conditions should greatly mitigate. 

273. Vigorous physical exercise can now do 
only good. The muscles are ready for their final 
training. Mere play is not enough; gymnastics are 
needed. It is a time when athletics are exceedingly 
useful, but they can easily be made too severe. 
The great increase of the heart has been accom- 
panied by the addition of much new tissue, hence 
it is weak and easily strained. Century runs with 
the bicycle and long halves at football should be 
carefully avoided. The boy is still far from the 
toughness and endurance of later years, when the 
tissues have gradually matured and hardened. 
Every commander of an army recognizes the high 
rate of sickness and death among young recruits 
on hard campaigns, especially in unhealthy or 
severe climates. Now the hard bed with light cov- 
erings in the cool room and cold bath will help 
the hardening process in the healthy boy. The 
danger of overpressure from study is probably not 
so great in the high school as in the lower grades. 



Adolescence 107 

The greater danger is of too much and too intense 
social life, and the accompanying excitement, late 
hours, and loss of sleep. Whether the last years 
of the high school course are too crowded for the 
best mental development of our boys and girls is 
a question which must be answered by experienced 
observers. 

274. The attainment of full growth and of large 
muscular power, the large heart and lungs, the 
well oxygenated hot blood driven at high pressure, 
the activity of young vitality of all the tissues and 
systems, give buoyancy and courage, a sense of 
power and longing for complete freedom, and 
revolt against control. A new world opens before 
him, as fresh and fair as on the morning of creation. 
The glory of life, the joy of mere living dawns 
upon him. He sees parents and teachers plodding 
in a humdrum round. He is sure that they cannot 
understand him, and that they know very little of 
the glories of life and of the world. He will gird 
his loins, go whither he will and learn all about it. 
He must taste of every experience, and is willing 
to meet both joy and sorrow with "frolic welcome." 
He has not yet been saddened by experience, or dis- 
illusioned by disappointment and failure. He 
would eat of the tree of knowledge of good and 
evil though it should cost him paradise. Nature 
is now loosing her leading strings. He is set free 
to complete his individual development and to 
forge his own character. We cannot stop him if 
we would, we should not if we could. In old times 
the adolescent ran away to sea, now we send him 



108 The Science of Education 

away from home to school or college. Authority 
has only a superficial hold upon him, tradition far 
less. But the influences of home training, which 
have rooted themselves deep in his subconscious 
life,, are still very powerful. He has not yet gained 
self-knowledge or self-control. Much of the child 
still lingers in him. Impulses well up from every 
change in his physical constitution or condition, 
and he is entirely unprepared to meet them. He 
hardly knows his real strength, much less his weak- 
ness. He is very loyal to his associates, as is 
shown by his group games, his class and society 
feeling, and his school or college spirit. To under- 
stand him under certain conditions you must have 
studied the psychology of the mob; instability 
often seems to be his most marked characteristic. 

275. He is a mixture of contradictions, an 
enigma to us and to himself. He might well say, 
"My name is legion, for we are many." In the 
ferment of his young life all that is trifling and 
worthless comes to the surface; the strong and 
sweet lie beneath the froth. We may very easily 
do him injustice. If we cannot understand him 
and sympathize with him, we should very carefully 
leave him to nature. Let us not forget that forty 
years ago the Union was saved by an army of boys. 

276. He has hardly clearer conceptions of the 
meaning and value of time than a child. He cannot 
play a waiting game. If the sun shines to-day it 
will always remain cloudless. If the maid of his 
adoration has frowned upon him, she will never 
smile again. He lives on the Delectable Mountains 



Adolescence 109 

or in the depths of the Valley of Humiliation, more 
frequently in the latter region than you suspect. 
He betrays all his conceit; his humiliation over 
blunders, failures and sins he feels, but keeps to 
himself. Such is, or soon will be, the boy or girl 
intrusted to the care of the teachers in the high 
school. 

277. Let us try to look a little deeper. The boy 
has a great heart, is loyal to his friends, devoted to 
his leader. He is often generous to a fault. Deal 
honestly and "squarely" with him and you may 
apply curb or spur as you will. His system of 
morality may be crude and strange, but he is 
usually true to it. We must trust him., even if he 
does now and then disappoint us. 

278. Tides of religious thought and tendency 
have swept through his soul, corresponding to the 
periods of acceleration of his physical growth. The 
first may have come at twelve or even earlier, and 
is often weak and apparently lacking in permanent 
results. A second follows at fourteen, stronger 
but largely emotional. The wave at sixteen affects 
feeling, intellect and will. Or religious growth 
and development may be gradual and steady. The 
importance of all these changes cannot be over- 
estimated ; the mental metamorphosis at ado- 
lescence is just as profound as the physical at 
puberty. All things are becoming new. We must 
expect it to be a time of instability, of surprises, 
and of contradictions. Perhaps you see only the 
beginnings of this process; but the preparation and 
beginning largely determine the final results, 



no The Science of Education 

279. It is the period of promise in the life of the 
boy and girl. It is often our privilege to catch a 
glimpse of these promises, to "see them afar off" 
before they are even suspected by parent or friend. 
They "see visions and dream dreams." There are 
endless possibilities in these dim and far off visions. 
Mr. Phillips said that the power which hurled 
slavery from its seat was young men dreaming 
dreams by patriots' graves. The all-important 
question now is: Can the promise be made good 
and the visions realized? The dream has more sub- 
stance and value than all the rules of prosody, 
propositions of mathematics, or facts of anat- 
omy 

280. This power of arousing the higher divine 
life immanent in every human soul is the essential 
character of the great teachers, leaders and 
prophets of all time. Its seat is in the depths of 
personality; it defies alike analysis and resistance. 
It leaps from soul to soul as if by contagion. 
Heroism evoked by hero worship is the central 
thought of all history from Gideon and his three 
hundred to Sheridan at Winchester changing a 
mob into an army of heroes. 

Virtue streams out from strong character, but it 
is exceedingly infectious, and good is more infec- 
tious than evil. If we amount to anything, we are 
sources of infection, whether we will or not. 

281. Hence courses, methods, training and in- 
struction,, all together, are of less importance than 



Adolescence hi 

the personality of the teacher. Kipling's Sergeant 
Whatisname 

" . . . . drilled a black man white, he 
made a mummy fight, 
He will still continue Sergeant Whatis- 
name. 
Private, Corporal, Color-Sergeant, and In- 
structor — 
But the everlasting miracle's the same." 
The everlasting miracle is the final secret and es- 
sence of education, and the use of school and col- 
lege is to bring pupil and teacher near enough to- 
gether so that it will work itself. If we teachers 
are good for anything, we are putting into our 
pupils something better than our life-blood. 

282. We must be healthy in mind and body, or 
we cannot be strong; and strength streams only 
from the strong. We must be sympathetic, for 
sympathy is the cable along which the magnetic 
power of personality flows. With children we 
must be a child, a boy with the boys. Otherwise 
the bond is broken, or never formed. 

283. We must be patient, hopeful and cour- 
ageous. Else the child or man will not trust us, 
and will have none of us. Evidently we must catch 
this personality from someone else, and can trans- 
mit only what we have received. Hence a teacher 
who does not believe with all her heart in the com- 
munion of saints will never be a real educator, how- 
ever much Greek or history she may know, or how- 
ever firm and wise her discipline. We must live 
in constant association with the noblest souls. We 



ii2 The Science of Education 

can easily find them among our immediate neigh- 
bors if we search aright ; if not, we must seek 
them in literature and history. We must gain ad- 
mittance to what Heine has called "the apostolic 
succession of great souls, the only people who 
understand anything in the world." And we must 
change into their image. We are called to the very 
grandest of all professions. We cannot be suf- 
ficiently proud of our calling, or sufficiently 
humbled by the smallness of our attainments. We 
make the Massachusetts of the twentieth century. 
We are doing something far grander. We work 
for the development of the race. We mould it into 
conformity with what is deepest and most perma- 
nent in environment. Hence all the powers of 
nature are with us. We cast in our efforts with the 
irresistible tide of events as it sweeps toward a 
better age. Let us "be strong and of very good 
courage." — In Education, April, 1906. 

Adolescence Discussed 

284. The discussion in this section is the work 
of one of our students. 

The period of adolescence marks the transforma- 
tion of boys and girls into men and women. There 
is a marked step in the development of the physical 
nature. The girls generally attain their growth by 
the age of sixteen, and the boys by the age of 
eighteen. There is also a marked development of 
the sexes during this period. 

The youth and maiden are not content with the 



Adolescence 113 

companionship in games and plays — there is a de- 
sire to express and exchange ideas, thoughts, feel- 
ings and sentiments. 

During this period the tendency of heredity to 
assert itself is strong; there is a liking for solitude, 
a feeling of irresponsibility, a lack of motor control, 
and a greater feeling of self-consciousness. 

The rapid building up of the physical nature 
(rapid growth,, increased sensibility of the skin and 
sense organs, the increased supply of blood) brings 
in an element of excitement and great physical 
vigor, and at the same time there is a fluctuation of 
activity and dullness. The dullness follows as a re- 
sult of too great an expenditure of the extra vigor 
and energy. 

There is likewise a constant change of interest 
and fads. The ambitions and ideals undergo a 
constant readjustment; and it is the beginning of 
soul stirrings. 

The period of adolescence is certainly one which 
needs to be surrounded by much care, wholesome 
interest and tactful watchings and suggestions. 
Because of the suddenness of many awakenings and 
changes, their diversity and shifting character, 
there is great danger that harm rather than good 
may follow in their steps. They need to be helped 
in their weaknesses; to be allowed fads which will 
outrun themselves if judiciously handled; to be 
given healthy outlets for their superfluous physical 
energy and changing interests; and to be led out 
of their embarrassing self-consciousness. Physical 
and mental fatigue and strain are far more injurious 



ii4 The Science of Education 

to girls than to boys during this period. Boys are 
likely to suffer from the result of too little rather 
than from too much activity at this period. 

The character of studies of this period should 
help to tide over this important period of life suc- 
cessfully. If the studies are not characterized by 
vigor, irresponsibility will increase; the additional 
energy will spend itself in unnecessary and useless 
physical sources and there will be a lack of balance ; 
their moral development is in a critical stage and 
vigor is needed. To meet the demands of this 
period aright and pass through it unscathed the will 
power stands severe tests — therefore the need of 
"strong exercise of will" in the studies. 

Energetic emotion is a natural outlet for some of 
the extra energy; but the emotion must be ener- 
getic or it may degenerate into sentimental lines. 
Dreaming, love of solitude and wandering, forma- 
tions of ideals, desire for companionship of opposite 
sex — these and others of their kind are characteris- 
tics which can easily be made a source of strength 
or weakness. 

My own view of the characteristics of pupils dur- 
ing this period has been embodied in the above 
statements and explanations; the same is partly 
true of my view concerning the work to be done in 
it during this period. 

I might add that the best of manly and womanly 
ideals should be presented to counteract any weak 
or false ones; that the foolishness and silliness and 
smartness of this age should be tactfully discour- 
aged with firmness; that the painful self-con- 



Adolescence 115 

sciousness should be met with gentleness and con- 
sideration, and not with ridicule or harshness; that 
the teacher must be on guard against over-fatigue 
for the girls and lack of activity for the boys. 

Quotation from Authority 

285. Definition. — Adolescence is the period in 
the development of the individual introductory to 
the attainment of maturity. Legally, it is from 12 
in girls and 14 in boys to 21 ; physiologically, to 
about 25 for boys and 21 for girls. 

286. Physiological characteristics. — The term 
is usually, but not exclusively, confined to human 
developmental stages. It is customary to dis- 
tinguish the periods of infancy, childhood, puberity, 
adolescence, the adult state, and senescence; a dis- 
tinction between the early and the later periods of 
adolescence seems also desirable. The more dis- 
tinctive characteristics of adolescence are of a 
physiological nature related in great part to the 
unfoldment of sexual functions ; but the accom- 
panying secondary psychological tendencies are 
hardly less characteristic and important. The ap- 
pearance of the beard, the change in voice, the as- 
sumption of the adult form, the more pronounced 
differentiation of sex characteristics, the final con- 
solidation of the bones, the appearance of latent 
propensities, the change of features to show new 
characters, the prominence of hereditary influences, 
as well as other less objective and more subtle 
changes, serve to distinguish adolescence. 



n6 The Science of Education 

287. Psychological traits. — The psychological 
traits of adolescence are prominent,, but their varia- 
bility and complexity render an adequate descrip- 
tion difficult. In thought and feeling, as well as in 
appearance, the boy becomes specifically masculine 
and the girl feminine. There is in both a funda- 
mental change and expansion of the emotional life. 
The mind is filled with hopes and ideals, dreamy 
longings and fervid passions. Ethical, religious, 
and intellectual motives become more cogent; 
conscientiousness and seriousness inspire action. 
Great emotional fluctuations occur; periods of en- 
thusiastic energy and spasmodic attempts at high 
achievement giving place at times to languor and 
depression, to doubt, dissatisfaction, and morbid 
rumination. It is a period of violent affections for 
the opposite sex, of intense friendships, of pledges 
and vows. It is a period when home surroundings 
begin to seem narrow,, and the desire to wander, to 
do and dare, seizes the adolescent enthusiast. It 
is the period of adventure, of romance and poetry 
and artistic sensibility. In its later stages it may 
usher in the period of doubt and speculation, of the 
desire to reform existing evils, and the ambition 
to accomplish great things. Many deeds and 
movements of historical importance found their 
origin in the impulses and strivings of adolescents, 
while the description of this period in their own 
career or in that of others has offered an inviting 
field for the biographer and the novelist. The 
storm and stress periods of Goethe and John Stuart 
Mill, of Tolstoi and Marie Bashkirtseff, no less 



Adolesence 117 

than the masterly delineations of George Eliot's 
Gwendolin Harleth and Maggie Tulliver, form a 
valuable and suggestive contribution to the psy- 
chology of adolescence. The period has been rec- 
ognized by primitive peoples, and in past civiliza 
tions by special rites and cults. In its educational 
as well as psychological aspect the study of ado- 
lescence is of great importance; the utilizations of 
the enthusiasm and good impulses and the avoid- 
ance of the dangers and the excesses of this period 
form a part of the duty of the educator, the physi- 
cian and the parent, to which renewed attention is 
being directed. — Dictionary of Philosophy and Psy- 
chology. 

Adolescence Outlined 

288. Summary. — This outline is intended as a 
useful summary of essential considerations in pre- 
ceding and subsequent sections in this chapter. 
Elaborate the suggested points in Sections 289 to 
292 inclusive. 

289. Psychology of adolescence. 

1. Predominance of emotions. Enthu- 
siasm, joy, hate, etc. 

2. Introspection. Extremes to be 
avoided. 

3. Higher cognitive powers developing. 

4. Masculine and feminine types of mind. 

5. Manners. 

290. Morbidity of adolescence. 

1. Instability due to rapid development 



n8 The Science of Education 

of tissue. Biological proof. 

2. Danger in this unstable period. 

3. Greatest changes in reproductive, 
nervous, circulatory, and digestive 
systems. 

291. Disorders and diseases under 3 of 290. 

1. Highly organized nerve tissue. 

Adapted activity, nourishment, rest. 

(a) Neurasthenia and nervous pros- 
tration among pupils and teachers. 

(b) St. Vitus's dance and hysteria. 

(c) Melancholia. 

(d) Hereditary diseases. 

2. Anaemia, especially among girls. 

3. Dyspepsia and constipation. 

4. Disorders in reproductive systems. 

Necessity of prudent instruction of 
boys and girls. It is a false modesty 
that makes teachers overlook such 
private advice to pupils . 

292. Corollaries or deductions. 

1. Environment must be adapted to 
pupil rather than vice versa. 

2. Physical health is a predominant con- 

sideration. 

3. Pupils need direction and inspiration 
rather than ponderous knowledge. 

4. School management is a vital consid- 

eration — discipline, studies, home les- 
sons, study periods, recesses, food, 
clothing, and sympathy must be ad- 
justed to the needs of the adolescents. 



Adolescence 119 

293. Write your opinion on this quotation: 
"Coeducation after the twelfth year is a mistake: 
better results for the race can be obtained by differ- 
ent systems adapted to each." 

294. References. 

Burnham. Study of Adolescence, in Peda- 
gogical Seminary, I., 174. 

Butler. Scope and Functions of Secondary 
Education, in Educational Review, XVI., 19. 

Christopher. Grozvth and Development at 
Puberty, in Transactions American Pediatric So- 
ciety for 1 901. 

Clarke. Sex in Education. 

Ellis. Man and Woman. 

Hall. Adolescence. 

Lancaster. Psychology and Pedagogy of 
Adolescence, in Pedagogical Seminary. V., 61. 

Nezv York Teachers' Monographs, October, 
1901, p. 63. 

Warner. Study of Children. 



CHAPTER X 
MEANING OF TERMS 

295. Specific viewpoints. — This chapter is in- 
tended especially for students who are preparing for 
examinations. Liberal scholarship implies breadth 
of view, but any examination for teachers' licenses 
is likely to require a specific expression of opinion. 
Such opinions must conform to an accepted stand- 
ard of thought, no matter how strong one's own 
opinion may be. The aim of this chapter is, there- 
fore, to help students focus their thinking on cer- 
tain topics that are not clearly defined in educa- 
tional literature. 

Teaching Defined 

296. By Joseph Baldwin. — Teaching is the art 
of promoting human growth. The efficient teacher 
understands the growing pupil and understands the 
subject taught. He completely adapts matter and 
method and leads learners to put forth their best 
efforts in the best ways. 

297. By Edward Brooks. — The term teaching is 
a little more comprehensive that the word in- 
struction. An instructor, strictly speaking, is one 

120 



Meaning of Terms 121 

who furnishes the mind with knowledge ; a teacher 
is one who furnishes the mind with knowledge, and 
at the same time aims to give mental culture. 

2g8. By Hathaway. — Teaching is guiding the 
pupil in those exercises which performed by himself, 
will best develop his powers. 

299. By Hinsdale. — Teaching is bringing knowl- 
edge into due relation with the mind. 

300. By Hoose. — Teaching is consciously ad- 
justing objects and acts to the proper faculties and 
capacities of the learner. 

301. By Laurie. — Teaching is simply helping 
the mind to perform its function of knowing and 
growing. 

Instructing Defined 

302. By Brooks. — Instruction is the furnishing 
of the mind with knowledge. It is the process of 
developing knowledge in the mind of another. The 
term is derived from in, into, and struo,, I build, 
meaning I build into. To instruct the mind is thus 
to furnish it with knowledge, to build up knowledge 
in the mind. 

303. By Compayre. — The principal means em- 
ployed in intellectual education is instruction. There 
is, in fact, no other way to develop the faculties 
than by exercising them. Now, intellectual exer- 
cise is study, and teaching is causing a pupil to 
study. 

304. By Roark. — Instruction is directly giving 
information — knowledge of facts, new ideas, and 



122 The Science of Educatio 



N 



words — to the pupil. It should be done only for 
the purpose of stimulating the desire for more 
knowledge, and of furnishing material that the pupil 
cannot economically get for himself. 

Training Defined 

305. By Sully. ..The systematic procedure of 
the teacher is implied in the word training. It 
means the continuous or periodic exercise of the 
faculty, with the definite purpose of strengthening 
it and advancing its growth. 

Discipline Defined 

306. Process and result. — As a process disci- 
pline is the exercise of an organ for the purpose of 
making it function more readily; as a result dis- 
cipline is the power of performing economically 
and efficiently any work the organ would not have 
done so well without training. Recall formal dis- 
cipline as a training that aimed to produce power to 
meet any emergency in life. 

307. By DeGarmo. — Discipline is systematic 
training through education. 

308. A quotation. — "Discipline is the result of 
training and study. In physical culture it gives a 
man control of his muscles, so that they are obedi- 
ent to his will. In mental culture it gives him con- 
trol of his intellectual powers, so that he is able 
under all circumstances to do the best work possi- 
ble. In moral training discipline gives a man such 



Meaning of Terms 123 

control of himself bodily and mentally that he can 
resist temptation, discern good from evil, and make 
the best choice." 

Study Defined 

309. By E. E. White. — Study is the attentive 
application of the mind to an object or subject for 
the purpose of acquiring a knowledge of it. Study 
involves persistent attention, and continued or pro- 
longed holding of the mind to the knowing of an 
object by acts of the will. 

310. By McMurry. — These two definitions are 
taken from Hoiv to Study. 

From Chapter II: "The term study as here used 
has largely the meaning given to it in ordinary 
speech. Yet it is not entirely the same ; the term 
signifies a purposive and systematic, and therefore 
a more limited, kind of work than much that goes 
under that name." 

From Chapter III: "True or logical study is not 
aimless mental activity or a passive reception of 
ideas only for the sake of having them. It is the 
vigorous application of the mind to a subject for 
the satisfaction of a felt need. Instead of being 
aimless, every portion of effort put forth is an or- 
ganic step toward the accomplishment of a specific 
purpose ; instead of being passive, it requires the re- 
action of the self upon the ideas presented, until 
they are supplemented, organized, and tentatively 
judged, so that they are held well in memory. The 
study of a subject has not reached its end until the 



124 The Science of Education 

guiding purpose has been accomplished and the 
knowledge has been so assimilated that it has been 
used in a normal way and has become experience." 

311. By Earhart. — Students should read Teach- 
ing Children to Study. This definition is on page 5. 

"Studying in its highest sense is the process of 
assimilating knowledge, of reorganizing experi- 
ence." 

Learning Defined 

312. Like apperception. — Learning is apperceiv- 
ing. Mastery implies good apperception; and, as 
we have seen, thorough apperception includes all 
that the mind can do. 

313. Examination question and answer. — 
(a) Explain this rule of Jacotot's: "The pupil must 

learn some one thing and connect everything else with , 
it." (b) What is properly meant by "learning" a lesson 
in geography or history ? By "learning" a tune? By 
"learning" a stanza of poetry? By "learning" to be punc- 
tual ? 

(a) There is no such thing as an isolated fact or 
idea. It must be associated with something else. 
Correlation of subjects, which received a consider- 
able amount of attention, was a branch of this rule. 
The "Compromise of 1850" means little to the pupil 
if he is not acquainted with the history of our coun- 
try from the first appearance of the slavery ques- 
tion to the admission of California into the union. 

(b) A lesson is learned in geography of history 
when a pupil, in his own language, is able to give 



Meaning of Terms 125 

the facts in their right relations. A tune is learned 
when a pupil or class is able to give it with ease and 
expression. It may be with or without the copy. 
A stanza of poetry is learned when the exact words 
of the author can be given without aid. Learning 
to be punctual means a repetition of the effort until 
it becomes a habit, when it is accomplished with 
ease. 

314. Terms distinguished. — Teachers are not 
necessarily educators. Anything educates the child 
that helps to mould its character, or that stimulates 
its self-control. Fire educates in an imperative 
manner, but it does not teach. The authority of 
the parent educates his child, while the child may 
be taught nothing in regard to the nature or source 
of authority. A teacher's personal influence may 
educate a school in ways of virtue,, while he has 
taught them nothing about the nature of virtue. 
Teaching regards the purely intellectual capacities 
of man. Education refers to all the capabilities of 
mind. The intellect is taught by a person, and 
educated by persons and things. The will is edu- 
cated by any power. Teaching sets the subject- 
matter, trusting the mind to accept the truth; edu- 
cating may exert a power without giving any rea- 
son or instruction. Teachers should be educators. 
Parents are educators — they may also be teachers. 
Good teaching and good educating put the mind of 
him who is taught or educated, into a frame which 
acknowledges and accepts testimony and authority 
from whatever source they spring. That teach- 
ing or educating is pernicious which leaves the mind 



126 The Science of Education 

of the learner in a state of undue skepticism towards 
testimony and authority. — Hoose. 

315 (a). To inform. — To inform is applicable to 
matters of general interest; we may inform our- 
selves or others on everything which is a subject 
of inquiry or curiosity; and the information serves 
either to amuse or to improve the mind; to instruct 
is applicable to matters of serious concern, or that 
which is practically useful; it serves to set us right 
in the path of life. A parent instructs his child in 
the course of study he should pursue ; a good child 
profits by the instruction of a good parent to make 
him wiser and better for the time to come; to teach 
respects matters of art and science; the learner de- 
pends upon the teacher for the formation of his 
mind, and the establishment of his principles. Every 
one ought to be properly informed before he pre- 
tends to give an opinion; the young and inexperi- 
enced must be instructed before they can act; the 
ignorant must be taught, in order to guard them, 
against error. Truth and sincerity are all that is 
necessary for an informant; general experience and 
a perfect knowledge of the subject in question are 
requisite for the instructor; fundamental knowledge 
is requisite for the teacher. — Crabb. 

Topics for Mastery 

316. Sensations. 

1. Quality affected subjectively and ob- 
jectively. 
a. Visual. 



Meaning of Terms 127 

b. Auditory or audile 

c. Olfactory. 

d. Taste. 

e. Touch or tactile. 

/. General : temperature, motor, com- 
mon sense. 

2. Intensity. 

3. Vividness. 

317. Perception. 

1. Necessity of healthy bodies. 

2. Attention to stimuli. 

3. Apperception. 

4. Expression. 

318. Memory. 

1. Psychological stages. 

a. Apprehension. 

b. Retention. 

c. Reproduction. 

2. Fixing impressions. 

a. Receptive attitude of mind. 

b. Regular repetition. 

c. Physical fitness. 

3. Laws of association. 

a. Contiguity. 

b. Similarity. 

4. Kinds of memory. 

a. Verbal. 

b. Logical. 

319. Imagination. 

1. Reproductive. 

2. Constructive. 



128 



The Science of Education 



2. 

3- 
4- 



320. Conception. 

1. Particular notion. 
General notion. 
Generalization. 

Indistinct concepts caused by indis- 
tinct percepts, defective observation, 
poor abstraction, loose language, lack 
of time for assimilation, weak memory. 

5. Distinct concepts from concrete exam- 
ples, wide induction, definite charac- 
teristics. 

321. Judgment. 

1. Relation between two ideas. 



2. Comparison. 




3. Decision. 




4. Intuitive judgments. 


5. Deliberative ; 


udgments. 


322. Reasoning. 




1. Induction. 




2. Deduction. 




3. Analogy. 




323 to 353. Logic. 




Logic 


Categorical argument 


Syllogism 


Hypothetical argument 


Proposition 


Disjunctive argument 


Term 


Dilemma 


Definition 


Fallacy 


Division 


Induction 


Inference 


Observation 


Immediate inference 


Explanation 


Mediate inference 


Method of agreement 


Enthymeme 


Method of difference 



Meaning of Terms 129 

Argument Method of concomitant 

Hypothesis variations 

Method of residues 
Rules of the syllogism 
Rules of the logical definition 
The law of identity 
The law of contradiction 
The law of the excluded middle 
The validity of deduction 
Rationalism, empiricism, reasoning, judgment. 



CHAPTER XI. 
SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN EDUCATION 

Fatigue 

353. Explanation of fatigue. — Prolonged exer- 
cise of any set of cells in the body results in fatigue. 
The cells become drained of their nutriment, ex- 
hausted, and so act with difficulty, if at all. The 
readiness with which fatigue of any part will be 
produced depends inversely both upon the develop- 
ment of the part and .upon the state of general 
health. Since the nutriment of each cell comes 
from the blood, and since the amount of nutriment 
stored up in any cell will depend upon its size, a 
well-developed muscle in a healthy, ruddy boy can 
undergo exercise much longer before becoming 
fatigued than a poorly developed muscle in a pale, 
sickly boy; and the same is true in the case of 
brain activity. 

354. Effects of fatigue. — The effects of fatigue, 
moreover, are noted not only in the part which has 
been exercised. A day of hard lessons produces a 
tired feeling all over the body, not simply in the 
head. This is because the nerve cells, by their ac- 
tivity, produce waste products, which are gathered 
up by the blood. These are irritating and affect 
the whole body, being carried to every part of the 

130 






Special Problems in Education 131 

blood. When during repose these products are got 
rid of, being burned up by oxidation and eliminated 
through the skin and other excretory organs, the 
tired feeling disappears. During the period of rest, 
moreover, the cells recuperate and reload them- 
selves with nourishment from the blood, becoming 
again plump and ready for activity. Fatigue which 
can be readily dissipated by a night's rest is spoken 
of as normal fatigue, or as healthy tire. But if there 
persists a tired feeling in the morning after a good 
night's sleep, the fatigue is more than normal. 

355. School work and fatigue. — The amount of 
study or muscular exercise which produces simply 
normal fatigue in a healthy child may produce ab- 
normal fatigue in a child who is physically below 
par; and if this amount of work is continued the 
child must have a nervous collapse,, or nervous 
prostration. Children that are the offspring of al- 
coholic or neurotic parents, those that are anaemic, 
those that have defects of sight or hearing, those 
that are growing very rapidly, and especially young 
girls who are just entering the period of adoles- 
cence, are very susceptible to nervous collapse from 
overwork. Overpressure in schools is most apt to 
show itself in springtime, after the long winter, 
when the children have had little outdoor exercise. 
During this period of the year, moreover, increase 
in height is more rapid; this always causes great 
strain on the bloodmaking organs, and so predis- 
poses to anaemia and hence to nervous exhaustion. 
Mouth breathers and those children who have 
adenoid growths in the throat are also more liable 



132 The Science of Education 

than others to anaemia and abnormal fatigue. 

356. Signs of fatigue. — Awaking unrefreshed in 
the morning is one of the early signs of abnormal 
fatigue. Other signs are inability to concentrate 
the attention, loss of memory, irritability. If in a 
more advanced stage, there is morbid introspection 
and worry, perhaps hypochondria; next, there 
may be restlessness, diminished sensitiveness,, and 
finally loss of ability to feel tired. Fortunately, the 
latter symptoms seldom occur in children. One re- 
sult of over-fatigue is shown by the twitching 
movements of St. Vitus's dance. When any of the 
above signs appear, over-pressure in school is one 
of the elements to be thought of as a cause, and 
the child should be at once relieved of part or all 
of its school tasks. In writing on this subject Dr. 
Caille has said: "The days of brutally whipping 
children have gone. We are now refined and whip 
their brains to death." Children that are convales- 
cent from an illness should be specially guarded 
against returning to school too soon, as they may 
develop defects of vision, as well as the general 
signs of abnormal fatigue. — Adapted from Article 
by Dr. LaFetra in New York Times. 

357. Meaning of fatigue. — Fatigue is produced 
by a chemical process. Muscular action increases 
the oxygen absorbed and produces additional car- 
bon dioxide. One of the principal substances pro- 
duced by fatigue of muscle or nerve is lactic acid. 
There is a change not only in the size and micro- 
scopic appearance of the cell, but in histological ap- 
pearance. It may be easily demonstrated that the 



Special Problems in Education 133 

toxins formed in the blood by exercise are import- 
ant, if not the^ principal causes of fatigue. — Bolton, 
Principles of Education, 261. 

358. Use of the word fatigue. — The word fa- 
tigue is used in two senses: First, to denote the 
feeling of weariness; second, the nervous exhaus- 
tion that results from functional activity of the 
nerve cells. The former is a psychological fact, the 
latter a physical fact. — Burnham, of Clark Uni- 
versity, Worcester, Mass. 

359. Some causes of fatigue. — 

1. Hereditary weakness. 

2. Vitiated air in homes and schools. 

3. Order of studies not adapted. 

4. Fear due to exactions of authority. 

360. Questions answered. 

1. What is the explanation of the physical fact of 
fatigue? 

The physiological explanation of fatigue is found 
in the fact that in all nervous tissue there is a part 
which is really living while other parts are coming 
into life and still others are dying or dead. So by 
fatigue is meant a condition where the constructive 
or building-up process does not offset the destruct- 
ive or breaking-down process involved in the ex- 
penditure of energy. It is probable, too, that weari- 
ness results when the waste products are not carried 
away sufficiently by the circulation. 

2. Mention two deductions from physical and psycho- 
logical fatigue? 

In both mental and physical activity there are 
marked changes in the nerve tissue and every such 



134 The Science of Education 

change- is accompanied by waste. The real problem 
becomes, therefore, a question of how to do a max- 
imum of work with a minimum expenditure of en- 
ergy. This in turn involves the determination of 
suitable periods of work and rest under the psycho- 
logical law of change, and it involves also a con- 
servation of energy through proper habits of study. 
Under this view, how to study becomes of para- 
mount importance. 

3. What methods of measuring fatigue have been 
tested ? 

The first method is that of testing fatigue by 
physical measurements before and after the period 
of mental work. This is done by the Ergograph, 
an instrument devised by Mosso, for measuring the 
work done by a group of muscles. This method is 
unreliable, as other causes than fatigue may vary 
the results. Lack of interest by the pupil at dif- 
ferent times of the day will cause a change in the 
recording of the results. Then there is some pain- 
ful experience in operating the Ergograph and this 
would act as an inhibition upon effort. — See 
O'Shea's Dynamic Factors in Education, page 181. 

The second method is that of observation by not- 
ing the variations in mental work done during a 
period of definite assigned work. "This method of 
investigation was made by Sikorsky twenty years 
ago by the dictation method and he found from 
twenty to thirty per cent more errors after the 
school work than in the morning; by Burgerstein 
using simple arithmetical work for a test, the result 
being a marked increase in the quantity but a de- 



Special Problems in Education 135 

crease in the quality of the work during the course 
of a single hour." 

4. Mention some of the characteristic symptoms of 
fatigue ? 

Restlessness, lack of power of co-ordination, 
showing itself in the dropping of pencils and the 
like, in slips of speech, and perhaps in uncertainty 
in the use of the limbs, twitching movements, de- 
creased sensibility, especially of sight and hearing, 
flushing, unusual color of ears; and among the 
mental symptoms, irritability, loss of memory for 
common things, loss of curiosity and the power of 
attention, disturbance of speech, etc. — Burnham in 
Article on Fatigue, New York Teachers' Monographs, 
October, 1901. 

5. "The child, weary of the school task, turns 
to what he likes and all evidence of fatigue disap- 
pears." 

Explain this dictum according to the psychological view. 

This change is the psychological law of the rela- 
tivity of feeling. The strong feeling of intense in- 
terest drives the relatively weak feeling out of con- 
sciousness until perhaps the latter becomes so great 
that it reasserts itself and interest in turn lags, but 
throughout the whole process the physical fact of 
fatigue may have persisted. 

361. Suggestive exercises. 

1. Make a list of the ways in which fatigue is 
manifested by people whom you know. Make out 
a list of the ways in which you think people in gen- 
eral and pupils in particular waste their energies. 

2. Do persons who enjoy their work ordinarily 



136 The Science of Education 

suffer from nervous prostration? Compare them in 
this respect with persons who regard their work as 
a drudgery, and then discuss this principle as it re- 
lates to school work. 

3. "Yawning is a characteristic accompaniment 
of both temporary and permanent fatigue. The 
yawning is produced by anaemia of the brain. 
When one is temporarily fatigued, bored, or in a 
poorly ventilated room, the blood becomes stagnant 
in the small veins of the body. Those who suffer 
from cerebral anaemia yawn continually. The 
yawning, like stretching the arms, or massage, re- 
stores the equilibrium of the circulation." — (Bol- 
ton, 266). 

How should yawning in school be interpreted (a) 
in relation to the teacher, (b) in relation to the 
pupil? What remedies do you suggest? 

4. In this connection discuss the plan adopted 
in some cities of beginning school at 8.45 a. m. and 
going without intermission until 1 p. m. when 
school closes for the day. 

5. Express your opinion upon these suggestions 
relating to elementary and secondary school work : 

(a) Shortening the number of hours of work in 
the primary grades, especially for children who are 
easily fatigued. 

(b) Adapting the length of each period of study 
or recitation to the age and physical fitness of the 
pupils. 

(c) Granting a recess period for exercises in the 
open air, if possible. 

(d) Alternating of difficult and easy studies and 



Special Problems in Education 137 

also placing such difficult subjects as mathematics 
in the morning, while manual training, gymnastics, 
etc., may be put in the afternoon. 

(c) Rational child study, so that management 
of the school may satisfy the needs of individual 
pupils. 

Commercial Education 

362. The need of trained men. — The develop- 
ment of commercial education is but one of the 
striking instances of efforts now being made to 
adapt education to actual community needs. Those 
in charge of the secondary education have been 
rather slow to realize that the old-time course of 
study for high schools planned especially as a prep- 
aration for college was failing to attract or to hold 
great numbers for whom preparation for vocations 
is of immediate and pressing importance. In spite 
of the fact that an almost insignificant proportion 
of high school pupils seek admission to college, the 
influence of the latter institutions in determining 
the course of study for the lower school has been 
all powerful, and the program neglected to those 
subjects, however useful they might be, which did 
not count specifically for college preparation. But 
all that is changing. The secondary school is fast 
coming to assume an independent position with its 
own problems to solve in its own way, and these 
problems concern themselves no longer chiefly with 
the occasional student looking to a higher institu- 
tion, but to the great numbers who must immedi- 
ately take their place among the wage earners. Not 



138 The Science of Education 

the least important among those problems is, in a 
commercial age and a commercial country, how 
best to prepare the youth to render intelligent and 
valuable service in the world of trade. 

The marvelous inventions of recent decades, mul- 
tiplying productive power, as they do, manyfold, 
and bringing the whole civilized world into won- 
derfully close intercommunication, enormously in- 
tensify division of labor, which involves and implies 
exchange and distribution, processes which are dis- 
tinctly commercial. And with the vast increase in 
the extent of the exchange and distribution, there 
has come an increasing complexity in their manage- 
ment. Trade has long since ceased to be simple 
barter. Its rules and processes can no longer be 
picked up by the fairly intelligent in a few weeks. 
In its higher phases it puts to test the keenest 
minds, and in its ordinary phases it affords ample 
opportunity for the exercise of more than ordinary 
gifts. 

If the secondary school is to render the best 
service to society, it must adapt its instruction to 
the needs of the time. If the activities of a com- 
munity are chiefly or largely commercial, then pro- 
vision should be made in the course of study for an 
educational preparation for these activities, and the 
preparation should not be merely general. It 
should include so-called "practical" studies. Those 
who have contended that education should look 
only to the cultivation of general power, and this 
acquisition of general knowledge, and should ignore 
everything designed to be immediately and directly 



Special Problems in Education 139 

useful, have argued ably, but they have not won 
their case. The unrest in secondary education 
noted by Commissioner Sadler in the very con- 
servative German atmosphere owes its origin to 
the feeling that the training of the school should 
be more practical, and the same unrest is to be 
noted in every advanced community. Everywhere 
we note the loosening hold of the classical studies 
and the gradual exhaltation of the purely modern 
curriculum. — Principal J. J. Slicppard, New York 
High School of Commerce, at N. E. A., St. Louis. 

Manual Training High Schools 

363. The manual training high school is pecul- 
iarly an American institution. England has higher 
technical schools, and the countries of continental 
Europe have many trade schools ; but none of these 
perform the function of the American manual train- 
ing school, which is in no sense a trade school but 
a special adaptation of education to our latest civil- 
ization. Although the nature of the human mind is 
essentially the same to-day as at the beginning of 
historic time, the education of the human mind has 
ever been compelled to change and adapt itself to 
the changing needs and experiences of human life. 
A liberal education, according to the ancient Per- 
sian standard, consisted of acquiring the ability to 
ride a horse, to shoot straight and to speak the 
truth. Only one of these accomplishments is now 
deemed essential to education. The old classical 
form of education has held its place and has dom- 



140 The Science of Education 

inated all education down to the latter part of the 
last century on the fallacious theory that the edu- 
cation that was good enough for the best of men 
300 years ago is good enough for all men now. 
The error of that theory is too obvious to require 
demonstration. Indeed the fact that a system of 
education is a hundred years old is now presump- 
tive evidence of its unfitness for present conditions. 

From the old classical secondary schools there 
have developed and for some time will probably 
persist three general types of modern high schools, 
namely, the literary, the commercial, and the tech- 
nical or manual training. These" are the natural 
product of our changed industrial and social life. 
A hundred years ago we were a nation of farmers, 
producers of raw materials. Now we are a nation 
of manufacturers and traders, and the army that 
we have to fear is not the army of any nation 
equipped with guns, but a German army of skilled 
workmen, with tools in their hands, commanded 
by captains of industry who have been educated in 
the matchless Prussian schools. No artificial pro- 
tection of our markets will permanently avail to 
guard our industries against the invasion of that 
army. Our only abiding protection must be found 
in the training of our own workmen and in the ed- 
ucation of our industrial and commercial leaders. 
Germany is years and years ahead of us in the spe- 
cial education of its workingmen. Berlin alone has 
twenty-eight trade schools of various kinds. 

The schools to which we must look for holding 
our place in the industrial world are the technical, 



Special Problems in Education 141 

or mechanic arts, or manual training schools, as 
they are variously called; and these must not de- 
generate into mere trade schools. They must fur- 
nish academic training equal in quantity and of as 
high quality as that furnished by the classical or 
literary schools. They must require downright 
hard book-work while teaching the elements of 
many trades. These schools must prepare boys 
for college and for all courses in college except 
Greek. They must prepare for professional schools; 
they must prepare for learning trades; they must 
furnish the culture of a general education plus the 
training of a technical education ; and finally, they 
must prepare young men for leadership in industrial 
affairs. For these ends the academic studies of the 
manual training school must be taken up somewhat 
differently than in the ordinary high school. Math- 
ematics and science must be taught with emphasis 
upon the applications of these subjects to industrial 
processes. It is asserted by enthusiastic advocates 
of manual training that boys who are educated in 
their schools accomplish very nearly as much in 
academic studies as the boys in classical schools, 
besides learning the rudiments of many trades. 
That they do this may be explained partly by the 
fact that the work of the bench and the lathe comes 
as a welcome relief from constant book-work partly 
by the time saved from gymnasium exercises of 
which boys in manual training schools do not re- 
quire so much as boys engaged in sedentary work 
only; but chiefly by the interest and enthusiasm 
and spirit of work which pervades the manual 



142 The Science of Education 

training schools. Boys in these schools work 
harder and are able to work harder than boys in the 
ordinary schools and this spirit of work is notice- 
able in the boys who go on to the higher technical 
schools as contrasted with those who go to the 
academic courses in college. The university spirit 
of achievement and conquest pervades the technical 
schools. 

The high schools are the poor man's opportunity 
to give his children a liberalizing education, and as 
such they are the educational hope of democracy. 
In view of the keen industrial and commercial com- 
petition of the times, these schools must be estab- 
lished and supported at public expense for social 
and economic reasons. — Dean Balliett, School of 
Pedagogy, New York University. 

Ideals in Military Education 

364. Loss in time, effort, results. — "Enormous 
waste of time, great perversion of effort and corre- 
spondingly weak and inadequate results" were 
among the criticisms directed against the schools 
and colleges of to-day by Col. C. W. Larned of the 
United States Military Academy, in the course of 
an address at Cooper Union, February 7, 1907. He 
said in part: 

"The individualistic idea in education has led to 
a more or less chaotic state of things, not only in 
the medley of subjects offered for selection, but in 
the method of their teaching and the degree of ap- 
plication of the student in a 'go-as-you-please' sys- 



Special Problems in Education 143 

tern. After desultory attendance at the various in- 
stitutions for teaching from books the average 
graduate drops it all and begins the serious work of 
gaining money, or fame, or office. The student is 
left as an undergraduate to do as he pleases, and is 
taught to act in after life upon the same principle, 
operating in and with the elaborate machinery by 
which modern commercialism works. 

"The long apprenticeship to learning has not of 
necessity given the young man an improved body, 
more skilled faculties, better habits of living, more 
self-control, a knowledge of the duties of citizen- 
ship, a high respect for the rights of others, refined 
moral perception, a knowledge of his own physical 
constitution and its care, or of the duties and re- 
sponsibilities of a parent. Strange it is that, al- 
though under training for years and years of his 
impressionable youth,, he should reach the fulness 
of manhood and citizenship without discipline of 
body, without trained respect for law, without 
knowledge of his social obligations to his neigh- 
bor, or of the greater history of man in the struggle 
of the masses for light and life and a fair share in 
the bounty of God's providence. In a majority of 
cases he has not even acquired what culture pro- 
fesses to give him — disciplined powers of thought. 

"The military school trains for character and for 
the state. It systematically develops the body and 
it trains the mind along a consistent line for the 
double purpose of clear thinking and effective prac- 
tical work. It trains the character to discipline of 
action, habits of subordination to lawful authority, 



144 The Science of Education 

strict personal accountability for word and act, 
truth-telling, integrity and fidelity to trust, sim- 
plicity of life, courage. 

"To-day higher education seems as a rule to con- 
cern itself no whit about anything but intellectual 
development or its technical applications, and its 
processes are mainly for culture or gain. Whatever 
influence is exerted upon moral, social, disciplinary, 
or physical development is incidental, sporadic, and 
feeble. Character is the essential meaning, in the 
last analysis, of every attempt I have seen to de- 
fine education; and yet the practical mechanism 
by which education generally operates appears to 
me an exceedingly poor device to secure its develop- 
ment in its highest conception. 

"What West Point does for its cadets is pre- 
cisely this: It takes its youth at the critical period 
of growth; it isolates them completely for nearly 
four years from the atmosphere of commercialism; 
it provides absorbing employment for both mental 
and physical activities; it surrounds them with ex- 
acting responsibilities, high standards, and uncom- 
promising traditions of honor and integrity, and it 
demands a rigid accountability for every moment of 
their time and every voluntary action. It offers 
them the inducement of an honorable career and 
sufficient competence as a reward of success, and 
it has imperative authority for the enforcement of 
its conditions and restraints. 

"Unlike other institutions of higher education, 
West Point cannot be indifferent to the general per- 
formance of its students. It exacts of every indi- 



Special Problems in Education 145 

vidual rigid conformity to its standard, and its min- 
imum standard is proficiency in every branch of 
study taught in its curriculum." 

Opinion from Brown University 

365. Pupils deficient in power to think. — Presi- 
dent William H. P. Faunce, of Brown University, 
was one of the speakers under the auspices of the 
Department of Public Lectures of the Board of 
Education, 1907. Defend or disprove what he says 
about thought,, judgment and expression. 

"The young people of to-day, as compared with 
those of fifty years ago, are chiefly deficient in 
power of sustained attention and original thinking. 
They can not, or at least, they usually do not, think 
as clearly, as patiently, and as cogently as did their 
fathers. They do not as quickly distinguish the 
irrelevant from the pertinent, the kernel from the 
husk, as the men of the last generation. They have 
an amazing fund of information; they are wide 
readers of bright, ephemeral literature ; they have 
tasted every fruit on the great tree of knowldge; 
they know a thousand interesting scraps; they are 
more versatile and ingenius and attractive than any 
other of the recent generations. But they are 
quickly led astray by sophistry, and easily led to 
surrender conviction when it conflicts with interest. 

"Part of this is due to the universal reaction from 
the former drill and persistent iteration of the 
earlier teaching. In some schools the pendulum 
has swung so far that the clock has almost stopped. 



146 The Science of Education 

To banish struggle as essentially evil is not only un- 
pedagogical but immoral. Gifts and games are 
good for little children, but the question still re- 
mains whether the boy can fall down stairs without 
crying, and tell the truth when it hurts him, and 
master a difficulty without promise of sugar, and 
face the little but real battles of his own intellectual 
and moral life without running away. 

"A further object to set before our pupils should 
be greater power of self-expression through lan- 
guage. Many of our children have a poverty- 
stricken vocabulary, and rejoice in it. The remedy 
for poor modes of speech is not to be found in end- 
less drill in grammar or markings with blue pencil, 
but in association with those who already know 
how to write and speak their mother tongue. Good 
English like good manners, is learned by association 
with those who have it. 

"Above all, the aim should be to develop the 
power to estimate mental and moral values. Many 
of the men who have been exposed as fraudulent in 
great transactions recently were not at all deficient 
in the three R's ; they were deficient in apprecia- 
tion of moral values. We need to paint the thing as 
we see it, and we need to see the thing as it is." 

Secret Fraternities in High Schools 

366. Unsettled question. — Express your opin- 
ion upon this topic. Defend either affirmative or 
negative, or discuss both points of view. Following 
is the consensus of opinion of principals in this 
country: 



Special Problems in Education 147 

(1) That they are unnecessary for high school 
pupils living at home; (2) that whatever good 
might be claimed for college fraternities could not 
apply to boys of high-school age; (3) that public 
schools should be democratic and free from caste 
and organized snobbery; (4) that these fraterni- 
ties among children do have a tendency to set up 
social exclusiveness and caste in the schools; (5) 
that they are a source of discord among the pupils; 
(6) that they become factional in their characteris- 
tics, and that loyalty to the fraternity generally 
breeds disloyalty to everything else; (7) that they 
dissipate the energies of the pupils and interfere 
with their studies; (8) that they are selfish and 
narrow in their aims and methods; that the con- 
duct of the pupils should be open and above board, 
and there is no legitimate want or need in child 
nature which calls for secret or dark-lantern pro- 
ceedings, and (10) that whatever of a social nature 
which it is necessary to encourage in school can 
be done through other and better forms of society 
which can be under the supervision and control of 
the principal. The best remedy for them seems to 
be to deprive the members of participation in all 
school affairs outside of the classroom. — G. B. Mor- 
rison, N. E. A., 1904. 

367. Assignment. — Read one of these references 
for the purpose of understanding fatigue as a cause 
or ah effect of existing conditions in school life: 

Bolton. Principles of Education, 260-302. 

Kirkpatrick. Fundamentals of Child Study, 321- 

333- 

Q'Shea, Dynamic Factors in Education, 188-209, 



CHAPTER XII 
SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

368. Purpose of this chapter. — The science of 
education implies continuity from the kindergarten 
through the university. It is the purpose of this 
chapter to treat the relationships which produce the 
desired continuity, but completeness of presenta- 
tion of school administration is not attempted. 

In any good school system, the work of external 
organization is attended to by persons above the 
rank of the teaching force. This arrangement 
leaves the teacher to devote most of his energies to 
his own classes and the school in which he is teach- 
ing. Thus out of his own experience he can esti- 
mate the pupils' progress, measure his own worth, 
and adjust himself and his work to the require- 
ments of the system as a whole. After giving all 
due credit to the thought of others, the judgment 
of experienced teachers should be the one large fac- 
tor in making an opinion for examination purposes 
or practical daily work. The various phases of 
management invite the translation of experience 
into expressed opinion. 

Principles in Management 

369. A reference. — It is always advisable in fa- 
cing a variety of opinions to select a few points and 

148 



School Administration 149 

organize them for a basis of discussion. Three per- 
tinent principles are quoted on page 50 of McEvoy's 
Methods in Education. The study of the two chapters 
on Methods in School Economy and Methods in 
School Management, pages 45 to 76 in that book, 
is recommended to all who believe that the princi- 
ples of procedure in elementary education are valid 
in high schools and colleges. 

Qualifications of Teachers 

370. How to estimate a teacher. — Here, again, 
we meet a problem that is still in the realm of in- 
dividual opinion. For verification of this statement, 
compare the plans for rating teachers in normal 
schools, training classes, text books on school man- 
agement, and reports of school superintendents. A 
critical examination of the practice in New York 
City brings us at once to the point of acceptance, 
rejection or modification. Rejection requires an 
acceptable reason; modification must be justified 
by approved experience or authority; and, under 
any attitude, the final opinion should be one that 
contributes a wholesome view to the conception of 
this topic. 

371. Dr. Maxwell's address. — On June 4, 1902, 
City Superintendent Maxwell delivered an address 
before the principals and other supervising officers 
in New York City. His subject was How to Esti- 
mate a Teacher's Value. He made a minute an- 
alysis of the kind of teacher which the Board of Su- 
perintendents wished to develop as the type of the 



150 The Science of Education 

New York system. The address follows: 

"I was especially requested to call this meeting 
by two prominent associations of principals in order 
that a clear idea of the new requirements in the rat- 
ing of teachers might be obtained. The Board of 
Superintendents desires you to rate teachers under 
these heads: Teaching ability, scholarship, effort, 
personality, and control of class. Beside these de- 
tails you are to give a general estimate. Those 
teachers deemed by you fit and meritorious in the 
sense that these words are understood in determin- 
ing an increase of salary or in the renewal of a li- 
cense should be marked 'A' or 'B', all others f C or 
'D'. The majority, possibly a large majority, of 
the teachers will not reach 'A'. This is a mark that 
should be reserved for teachers of conspicuous 
ability. 

"To define more closely the expressions used in 
detailing the teacher's value, 'teaching ability' is no 
doubt made up of many things, but we may pay 
especial attention to some very important ones. 
First, I would mention ability to impart knowledge, 
or as it has been termed, power of exposition. It is 
one thing to have an idea but a quite different thing 
to impart it. On the other hand, some teachers im- 
part too much and leave the pupils little to do in the 
way of speaking and writing. Talking too much is 
a common fault of teachers. 

"Another evidence of teaching power is the 
ability to interest pupils in subjects taught so that 
deep and lasting impressions may be made. With- 
out the emotional force of interest the most 



School Administration 151 

accurate teaching fails to become part of the pupil's 
makeup. 

"Another important sign of good teaching is the 
ability to train the pupils to good intellectual and 
moral habits. This is only another way of saying 
that the good teacher is a trainer and former of 
character. It is not of much account if a teacher 
teaches unless the learned develops an ability and a 
habit of learning. He should get especially a power 
of thinking, that is, of seeing relations of things, 
their likeness and difference, and so forth. He 
should be able to reason. This should be seen to re- 
sult in increased power of expression, statement in 
clear language and also in ability to do. 

"It may be well, also, to mention some signs of 
poor teaching ability, things that would prevent a 
teacher from attaining a meritorious rating. One 
is the requirement that recitations be in the exact 
language of the text-book — mere parrot work. An- 
other is too much concert answering. All concert 
work may not be bad, but most of it is. Another 
one is the neglect of the pupils' observing and in- 
venting powers, as in drawing, where the poor 
teacher will tell too much and plan too much, de- 
stroying the pupil's individuality. Questioning is a 
valuable indication of a teacher's standing; we 
should observe whether the questions are well 
thought out and whether they are well distributed 
so as to keep all the class thinking and alert. A 
deplorable element of poor teaching is the neglect 
to employ object illustration in nature study and 
in every place where it is a fitting adjunct to the 



152 The Science of Education 

best understanding of the subject. Object teaching 
and illustration by diagrams is especially needed in 
arithmetic. 

"A serious defect is waste of time. It may be the 
teacher's time or the pupil's, such as the dictation of 
examples in arithmetic or the slow and painful 
copying of paragraphs from the board. 

"I will repeat, then, these are important consid- 
erations to note in rating teaching ability: Exposi- 
tion or imparting interest, effect on intellectual and 
moral habits, parrot teaching, concert work,, talking 
too much, telling too much, questioning, object 
teaching, waste of time. 

"In rating for scholarship the principal should ex- 
pect the teacher to have a good working knowledge 
of the subject she teaches. Her preparation for her 
daily lessons should also enter into her rating. 
Failure to prepare specifically for the work of the 
day is a conspicuous lack in the scholarship ex- 
pected of a teacher. Dr. Arnold studied the lessons 
for his most elementary classes, for he said he 
wished the boys to drink from a full stream. It is 
possible for a lazy teacher to waste a great deal of 
the children's time and to bring a school into ill re- 
pute, as was the case of a teacher in one of our 
schools the other day teaching that there were 
three kinds of soil — dry soil, moist soil and wet soil. 
We expect our teachers to keep abreast of current 
events and to enhance the interest of everything 
taught whenever it may be related to matters of 
present or recent interest. A superintendent tells 
me of a class that has been studying the West 



School Administration 153 

Indies as set forth in the geography, but the teacher 
told him that they had made no mention nor taken 
any notice of the astounding disturbances in Mar- 
tinique, which have excited the sympathetic interest 
of the whole world. 

"In rating a teacher's effort you should recognize 
her activity in school work and her efforts to im- 
prove herself by study outside of school. 

"Personality is probably the most difficult quality 
to rate, but there are details of personality to which 
the city is certainly entitled to demand the attention 
of its teachers. One of these is neatness and fitness 
of dress. I have recently added to my collection of 
school curiosities the report upon a teacher who 
uses the class-room as a place in which to wear out 
the society dresses which she has shone in earlier in 
the season. The effect of these gowns she heightens 
by lavish displays of jewelry. Her girls, from poor 
homes, soon bloom out in extravagantly vulgar 
finery, with accompaniments of imitation jewels. 
None of us realize how much example and sugges- 
tion guides those placed in our charge. So far as I 
have been able to judge from the reports made to 
me the teachers of our school system are singularly 
appropriate in this regard. Where fault has been 
found it is in greatest proportion regarding the care- 
less dress of men. 

"The voice is certainly a personal feature that 
should be regarded in rating a teacher. We should 
not require children to listen five hours a day to a 
harsh, strident, disagreeable voice. It is every 



154 The Science of Education 

teacher's duty to cultivate a pleasing tone and a 
clear enunciation. 

"Sympathy for children should be considered. 
When this is present gentleness is there also. When 
there is a feeling of hostility, a strife between the 
pupils and the class, rest assured that teacher is 
defective in personality. It is a matter of imagina- 
tion. If the teacher will form the habit of imagin- 
ing herself in the child's place she will come to see 
how much easier and pleasanter school work 
will be. 

"Decision of character is an element of personal- 
ity to be observed. We want teachers who will not 
announce a decision until well considered, but who 
will carry it out when made. Untruthfulness and 
injustice in teachers are unpardonable sins. 

"In rating control of class the only kind of con- 
trol to be marked meritorious is that obtained 
through interest in the work. Promise of reward is 
bad, fear and repression are worse. These means 
should be marked C or D. One phenomenon, 
where it is a class habit not seen or not cured by 
the teacher, should always be taken as evidence of 
unfit control, that is the repeated presentation of 
dishonest work by the pupils. 

"Your general estimate of the teacher's ability 
need not be an average of your detailed marks. 
Bear in mind that the object of these ratings is not 
to fill columns with marks, but to do something to 
raise the teaching force of the city to a higher plane 
than it yet occupies." 



School Administration 155 

Note. — For outline of this address, see Methods 
in Education, page 52. 

Examinations as Tests of Fitness 

372. Examinations for admission. — Many cities 
conduct examinations for licenses to teach, no mat- 
ter what credentials the applicant may hold. The 
New York City examinations have been subjected 
to severe criticism at home and abroad. Teachers 
in the system have not spared their censure of su- 
periors, nor have the hundreds of unsuccessful ap- 
plicants spoken softly of the various requirements. 
But in this, as in all other phases of school organiza- 
tion, students should view the topic broadly and 
then fit themselves to meet the requirements which 
cannot be overthrown by debate. The affirmative 
of this discussion is presented by two members of 
the Board of Examiners. 

373. By City Superintendent Maxwell. 
"Examinations, however, may be so conducted 

as to determine fitness very closely, certainly to 
exclude the grossly unfit. There must be both a 
written and oral examination, for a well-ordered 
written examination is an almost infallible test 
whether the examinee has the ability to marshal his 
resources at a sudden call, whether he can think 
clearly and coherently, whether he has an adequate 
mastery of written discourse, and whether he has 
the executive ability to adjust the task to the al- 
lotted time with due sense of proportion. All of 
these powers are powers which the skilful teacher 



156 The Science of Education 

ought to possess, and which may be fairly tested 
by a written examination. 

374. "The written examination, to serve its pur- 
pose must, of course, be a test of whether or not the 
applicant has the knowledge, the power of thought 
and the facility of expression that a teacher ought 
to have. An examination that would test mere 
book knowledge or memory would be practically 
useless for the purpose in view. 

375. "There are certain things that a written ex- 
amination cannot determine. It is not a certain 
test of moral character, or of personal charm, clean- 
liness, address, or even of teaching power. It does 
not reveal bodily deformity, sickness, faulty enun- 
ciation or foreign accent. It is even within the 
limits of possibility that a man may write well who 
talks very badly, and hence is unfit for teaching 
work. To determine these matters other methods 
of examination must be resorted to. The other 
methods which we use in New York include : 

376. "First, An oral examination given only to 
those whose marks in the written examination in- 
dicate that they are worthy of further considera- 
tion. 

377. "Second, By the term 'oral examination' 
we mean not merely the presentation and answer- 
ing of oral questions, but also an exhaustive inves- 
tigation of the past history and present qualifica- 
tions of the applicant, both personally and profes- 
sionally. The ratio of the maximum record mark 
to the minimum oral mark varies according to the 
license sought. Some licenses require little or no 



School Administration 157 

teaching for eligibility, as,, for instance, the initial 
license. Other licenses require large teaching ex- 
perience, and this experience must necessarily be 
made a matter of investigation. 

378. "Written statements regarding teachers 
must be received and rated with the utmost care. 
They must be rated for what they do not say, no 
less for what they say. For instance, a principal of 
a normal school reports a pupil as 'good' in scholar- 
ship, as 'high' in pedagogical work, as 'good' in 
private teaching. At the close of her first year of 
work in New York the principal of the school to 
which she had been assigned reported that her im- 
perfect knowledge and very deficient enunciation 
of the English language render her incompetent to 
control or interest any class in this department. 

379. "This is only one sample out of hundreds 
which I might adduce to show that school authori- 
ties often use unnessarily roseate language in writ- 
ing testimonials. Episodes of this kind have led the 
Board of Examiners to lay great stress upon what 
they term the 'oral examination.' They now lay 
such stress upon the mark on record, personality 
and ability to speak the English language that a 
bad mark in any one of these particulars nullifies the 
whole examination. 

380. "Turning from processes to results, I am 
happy to be able to report that recent investigations 
have shown : 

381. "First, that those persons who have re- 
ceived the highest standings at our examination 
have, upon the whole, done better than those who 



158 The Science of Education 

receive the lowest standings that were considered 
possible. 

382. "Second, nine-tenths of those whom it has 
been necessary to dismiss at or before the close of 
the probationary term are to be found in the class 
of persons who received comparatively low stand- 
ings at the examination. 

383. "Third, the examinations have been the 
means of bringing to the New York schools many 
teachers of high character and ability from other 
places, whose services it would not have been pos- 
sible to obtain in any other way. When it is known 
that the teachers in a city school system are ap- 
pointed as the result of the competitive examina- 
tion, honestly and skilfully conducted, the best 
teachers from all over the country will flock to that 
city." 

384. By Dr. Hervey, of Board of Examiners. 

"The first advantage of the present system is fair- 
ness. In the written examination the personal 
identity of the applicant is not revealed to the ex- 
aminer. All persons examined receive the same 
questions, are given the same time, and are judged 
with impartiality and leisure. The personal equa- 
tion, both of the examiner and of the examined, is 
absolutely eliminated. The whole inquiry centers 
upon certain definite matters of knowledge and 
power — and those of great importance — consid- 
ered apart from all other matters. It is evident that 
the written examination suffers decided limitations 
from this very fact, and yet in its limitations there 
undoubtedly lies a certain advantage,. 



School Administration 159 

385. "The second advantage is that of record. 
The examination paper written by the applicant's 
own hand is an original document. Its testimony, 
so far as it goes, is unimpeachable. Moreover, it 
may serve as a definite basis of appeal and recon- 
sideration. 

386. "With all its limitations a written examina- 
tion is certainly a valid test of something. It shows 
at least whether the examinee has done what he 
was set to do; it shows probably whether he can do 
what he was set to do; it shows pretty accurately 
whether he has the power to adjust the task to the 
time with due sense of proportion; and whether he 
can marshal his resources and set forth what he 
knows in due order and form. 

387. "That type of written examination will 
best serve as a test of professional fitness which 
most nearly approximates in its character the na- 
ture of the work to be done by the person passing 
the test. The written examination for a teacher's 
license must, as far as possible, be a test of whether 
or not the applicant has the knowledge, the judg- 
ment, and the power of thought and of expression 
that a teacher should have. 

388. "The main use made of the written exam- 
ination is to determine who shall not be permitted 
to proceed further in the examination. It serves 
as a uniform and absolutely fair, level and practica- 
ble, though rough means of sifting the better from 
the worse. 

389. "The written examination should always 
be, and in the practice of the Board of Examiners 



160 The Science of Education 

always is, supplemented by an oral examination 
which usually comes after the written marks are 
known. It has been suggested that the oral exam- 
ination should be given before the written. To this 
plan the objections are: (i) The time of the board 
would be wasted on absolutely undeserving candi- 
dates. (2) The oral examination is by its very na- 
ture a less conclusive and convincing test. 

390. "The oral mark is the result of an exhaust- 
ive investigation of the past history and present 
qualifications of the applicant, both personally and 
professionally. In the case of certain licenses half 
of the credits in the total oral mark are assigned to 
the items of 'studies' and 'record and teaching 
power,' predominance being naturally given to the 
item of 'record and teaching power.' A person who 
falls below the passing mark in record is counted 
as having failed in the examination, however high 
may have been his marks in the written examina- 
tion and in the other items of the oral examination. 

391. "The rest of the oral mark is made up of 
the answers to questions in the oral examination 
proper and the judgment of the examiners as to the 
personality of the applicant. In the examination 
for a certain license the ratio of personality to ques- 
tions is as two to three, 30 out of 100 credits being 
assigned to answers of oral questions. 

392. "The reason for this is obvious. The con- 
ditions of a necessarily brief oral test preclude an 
exhaustive investigation, and the preceding written 
examination usually renders such investigation un- 
necessary. It sometimes happens that a person of 



School Administration 161 

flawless record, who has passed a high written ex- 
amination, and who has given satisfactory answers 
to oral questions, is weighed and found wanting on 
the sole ground of personality. The forming of a 
judgment as to personality is an affair of the utmost 
delicacy and discrimination. In some cases it is 
easy enough to tell at sight, or otherwise, whether 
one applicant is or is not a clean gentleman; 
whether another is a gentlewoman or an ungentle- 
woman. In other cases it is not so easy. 

393. "The complaints from those who are kept 
out on personal grounds are as nothing compared 
with the righteous and justifiable indignation of 
principals and fellow teachers who are obliged to 
work with such objectionable persons as have, I 
grieve to say, been allowed, in comparatively small 
numbers, to slip into the system. The answer of 
the Board of Examiners to such complains is that 
during the school year 1903-4 out of 231 applicants 
for License No. 1 coming from a single institution 
all but 35, or nearly six-sevenths of the whole, were 
rejected, although only half of those applying failed 
in the written examination. In partly computing 
what's done it may be a comfort to remember 
what's resisted. 

394. "It should be remembered also that the 
pressure for teachers is so great that the duty of 
the Board of Examiners becomes sometimes not to 
select those who are fit, or to reject all those who 
seem unfit, but to supply teachers for the schools. 

395. "The maximum personality mark varies ac- 
cording to the license, from 15 to 20 per cent, of the 



162 The Science of Education 

total. But of more importance than the per cent, 
accorded to it is the fact that this mark, too, as well 
as record and teaching power, possesses the veto 
power." 

396. Summary of tests of character and fitness 
of applicants. — Here is an official summary of the 
tests used by the Board of Examiners in determin- 
ing the character and the general fitness of appli- 
cants for the several licenses to teach in New York 
City. These tests are, of course, aside from the 
written examination. 

1. Moral character, as indicated in the record of 
the applicant as a student or teacher or in other 
occupation, or as a participant in an examination. 

2. Physical fitness for the position sought; ref- 
erence being had here to all questions of physical 
fitness other than those covered in the physician's 
report as to "sound health 1 '. 

3. Technical skill in special subjects, as music, 
drawing, etc. 

4. Satisfactory quality and use of voice, and sat- 
isfactory command and reasonably correct use of 
language, whether in writing or in speech. 

5. Personal bearing, cleanliness, appearance, 
manners. 

6. Self-command and power to win and hold the 
respect of teachers, school authorities, and the com- 
munity. 

7. Capacity for school discipline, power to main- 
tain order and to secure the willing obedience and 
the friendship of pupils. 

8. Teaching ability, as indicated by skill and 



School Administration 163 

efficiency in explanation, in questioning,, in use of 
blackboard and of objective illustration, in arousing 
the interest in the use of appreciation, etc. 

9. Business or executive ability — power to com- 
prehend and carry out and to accomplish prescribed 
work, school management, as relating to adjust- 
ment of desks, lighting, heating, ventilation, clean- 
liness, and attractiveness of school-room, handling 
of supplies, etc. 

10. Capacity for supervision, for organization 
and administration of a school, and the instructing, 
assisting, and inspiring of teachers. 

The means employed in the inquiry as to the sev- 
eral points enumerated are written and oral exam- 
inations, class-room tests or observations, inspec- 
tion of official records and of reports from persons 
named as references, or from other persons having 
information; interviews or hearings of applicants 
or others ; correspondence. 

Conduct of the Recitation 

397. Purpose of the recitation. — Hinsdale said 
that teaching is "bringing knowledge into due rela- 
tion with the mind." That is one general purpose 
of the recitation; and, in a large sense, it is the pur- 
pose of the recitation to furnish all the opportuni- 
ties that educate. Specifically, the recitation period 
is a time for ascertaining what the pupils have ac- 
quired under assigned lessons, what difficulties have 
been encountered, and what the teacher must do to 
help pupils acquire effectual habits of study. It is 



164 The Science of Education 

a time for the meeting of the minds, — the achieve- 
ment most desirable in teaching. Compare section 
75 ; consult index in this book and in McEvoy's 
Answers in School Management. 

398. Methods of the recitation. — This topic sug- 
gests inductive-deductive method, topical method, 
heuristic questioning, empirical to rational, and 
many other familiar terms in examination ques- 
tions and pedagogical discussions. For considera- 
tion in the science of education, let the student 
hold to the interdependence of personality of 
teacher, subject-matter, and methods of teaching. 
The three form a unity in efficient teaching but 
each may be considered alone in educational classi- 
fication. Use chapter VII, pages 76 to 98, in 
Methods in Education for adequate description of the 
respective methods in elementary work, and then 
apply chosen kinds in higher instruction. The de- 
sirability of any method may be measured by the 
initiative aroused and the reactions produced in the 
pupils. 

399. Concert recitation. — Most of the teaching 
must necessarily be directed to the class as a whole, 
since our systems of grading aim to associate pupils 
who are approximately uniform in ability and ca- 
pacity. This statement applies to all acts of in- 
struction, whether called presentation, drill or re- 
view. But this does not mean, however, that con- 
cert recitation is approved for regular use. The 
whole class should be ready to answer when one is 
asked to recite ; otherwise, the minds are not united 
in the act of learning. Concert recitation is good 



School Administration 165 

for arousing class animation occasionally, for united 
thought in rapid reviews, and for developing school 
spirit in quotations, memory selections and songs; 
but as a daily recitation plan, it is censured in sec- 
tion 371. 

400. Group teaching. — This device in class man- 
agement is a valuable concession to pupils, since the 
welfare of pupils is put above the claims of rigid 
grading. It indicates respect for individuality by 
trying to adapt the whole scheme of education to 
each pupil's capacity. It is commendable, further- 
more, because it can be put into use in any grade or 
subject throughout the whole course of education. 

Group teaching is not new although many of its 
adaptations may be. It means, of course, dividing 
the class into groups,, according to ability, so that 
three groups, for example, shall be working on 
three respective kinds of assignment at the same 
time during one period. The teacher may be giv- 
ing oral instruction to one group, while the other 
two are engaged in written exercises. 

Eight arguments in favor of group teaching are 
given on pages 60 and 61 of Methods in Education. 
Supplement that reasoning by arranging a series of 
lessons for group work in some subject in secondary 
education. 

401. Individual teaching. — No matter what de- 
vices or methods or novelties may be advocated,, the 
process of true teaching remains a personal rela- 
tion between the teacher and individual pupils. The 
most successful class or group teaching is that in 
which the individuals in the class or group are able 



166 The Science of Education 

to put their minds into sympathetic communication 
with the teacher's mind, or vice versa. When the 
successful pupils have passed along with the satis- 
faction of a good degree of mastery, slow or defect- 
ive pupils remain for individual teaching to give 
them the right of promotion. When any pupil fails 
to understand the instruction, when disorder inter- 
feres with the smooth course of teaching, when ill- 
ness or other valid excuse causes absence, then 
there must be a personal meeting of the minds of 
teacher and pupil to restore conditions to a normal 
standard of efficiency. So under all circumstances 
it is safe to argue that individual teaching is the 
largest factor in the school education. 

Grading and Promotion 

402. A general problem. — The transition from 
grammar schools to high schools has been attended 
by many serious difficulties. Teachers in high 
schools have gone so far as to make a sweeping con- 
demnation of methods and results in the elementary 
schools. Pupils entering high schools are said to 
be deficient in matter, power of oral and written 
expression, habits of study, capacity for adaptation, 
and desire for knowledge. Is this criticism valid, 
or is there a distinctively different attitude in high 
school teaching? There is failure in adjustment 
somewhere in the course, since hundreds of boys 
and girls fail to complete two years of study after 
graduation from the grammar school. Is promo- 
tion forced? Are courses of study flexible enough? 



School Administration 167 

Is personality of teacher or pupil sacrificed to ex- 
ternal form? Does real education reach the indi- 
vidual? Let us have your answer. 

403. Pueblo plan. — While group teaching is an 
approach to individual instruction, we find a still 
more definite attempt in this line in the plan adopted 
in Pueblo, Colorado, and known as the Pueblo Plan. 
This plan is only the other extreme in the hope of 
avoiding the defects of classification and gradation. 
The Educational Reviezv, February, 1894, has this par- 
agraph about the Pueblo Plan: 

"The fundamental characteristic of the plan on 
which the schools are organized is its conservation 
of the individual. The pupil is placed purely with 
reference to where he can get the most good for 
himself; he works as an individual, progresses as an 
individual, is promoted as an individual and is grad- 
uated as an individual. The ordinary nomenclature 
of schools is continued for convenience; but the 
school system is one of flexibility, permitting pupils 
to pass from working-section to working-section as 
may be expedient. The perplexities relative to class 
intervals have disappeared, because there is no me- 
chanical classification. In appellation the term 
junior or senior may be used; but such term does 
not locate the individual any more than the name of 
a division of a railroad locates the exact position of 
a particular train. For working purposes the pupils 
are grouped in working sections ; but the members 
of a working-section are not necessarily doing the 
same work, or rather they are not doing the same 
work simultaneously. In brief, the school is both 



168 The Science of Education 

graded and ungraded, — graded in so far as applies 
to its plan of work, but ungraded in its accommoda- 
tions of the individual." 

Comment on this plan in contrast to the fixed 
plan. Apply to high school work. 

404. Batavia plan. — See page 62 in Methods in 
Education for a terse description. 

The summary of an address delivered by Superin- 
tendent Kennedy before the department of Educa- 
tional Science of Cornell University on June 16, 
1904, puts in concise form twelve propositions that 
are worthy of serious study. Take 9 and 10, for 
instance, and test the foregoing sections in this 
chapter. 

1. "Schools become clogged, (a) by slow minds, 

(b) by irregular attendance, (c) by discouraged 
minds. 

2. "The attempt to force forward an obstructed 
school is detrimental to all concerned, (a) It over- 
strains the teacher, (b) It depresses the teaching. 

(c) It destroys the condition of repose and equipoise 
essential to good teaching, (d) It is wasteful of 
time, destructive of interest, and promotive of dis- 
couragement, (e) It tends to wholesale failure, in- 
dicated by the great multitude who drop out, and 
by the indifferent scholarship of the few who per- 
severe to the end. 

3. "Statistics show that in elementary and in 
secondary schools, and throughout the first stages 
of higher education, the falling out is the rule and 
that a low grade of work and scholarship is the 



School Administration 169 

rule with those who remain. Hence failure is the 
rule, and high success the minute exception. 

4. "The clogging of schools may be practically, 
if not entirely, relieved, by devoting half the 
teaching force to individual instruction, (a) By 
directing attention definitely to the point where 
the pinch or clog occurs, (b) By operating upon 
the difficulty according to its exact nature and 
without resort to any kind of force. 

5. "Individual attention involves no strain on 
the teacher and no violence to the pupil ; hence it 
tends to that condition of repose and equipoise es- 
sential to good teaching and to successful study. 

6. "Individual teaching tends to check all lag- 
ging and flagging, whether resulting from dis- 
couragement or lack of interest, and to promote 
a general forward movement in the student ranks. 
(a) It sustains the interest of the brighter pupils 
by permitting them to move on, and by doing away 
with the irksome deadlocks, repetitions and tragic 
struggles of the recitation, (b) It brings forward 
the slower pupils by recognizing their real trouble, 
by saving them from public exposure and perse- 
cution, by gently leading them back from chaos 
to where the ground is solid under their feet, by 
giving them direction, and by awakening within 
them confidence in their own powers. 

7. "Individual instruction is quite as potent 
and essential in the moral as in the intellectual 
training of youth, (a) -The will to do what is right 
and wholesome is an expression of moral health. 
(6) Failure tends to unsettle character and to per- 



170 The Science of Education 

vert the will. Under failure there is a giving way 
of either physical or moral health, sometimes of 
both. 

8. "Individual instruction is a definitely re- 
stricted agency in the education of youth, (a) 
Its function is strictly remedial ; it addresses it- 
self solely to disturbed conditions, (b) Its end is 
attained in the restoration of desirable conditions, 
(c) It brings about its own elimination and gives 
way when the conditions for exclusive class in- 
struction are ideal. 

9. "Class instruction is the normal and perma- 
nent form of the best education of youth. It sup- 
plies (a) the spur of emulation, (b) the stimulus of 
numbers, (c) the attrition of mind upon mind, (d) 
the sidelights from many minds, (e) a greater 
breadth of teaching than can be given to an indi- 
vidual, and (/) an experience in thinking and doing 
in the presence of a public. 

10. "Only through the restorative effects of in- 
dividual instruction can a school reach anything 
like ideal conditions for class work, and only 
through the constant operation of individual in- 
struction can those conditions be maintained. 
Therefore, individual instruction is a constantly 
necessary phase of school activity, the constant and 
necessary supplement and corrective of class teach- 
ing. 

11. "Individual instruction involves no increase 
of labor or expense in the education of youth, but 
rather the reduction of both. 

12. "Finally, statistics show that schools pro- 



School Administration 171 

vided with systematic individual instruction carry 
their pupils to higher stages of advancement and 
give them sounder scholarship than do schools 
which lack this agency. In other words, these sta- 
tistics emphasize the fact that the business of edu- 
cation is to educate, and not to evade its responsi- 
bilities by seeking lines of least resistance." 

405. High school aided by Batavia plan. — We 
quote from Superintendent Kennedy's report to 
Batavia Board of Education: 

"We continue to have a very large increase in 
our High School and upper grades, and in the edu- 
cational results reached. This increase is out of 
all proportion to the natural growth of the town 
and of the primary grades. This expansion at the 
top has been going on steadily for the past four 
years, or since we incorporated individual instruc- 
tion into our scheme of education. I think that 
this increase at the top indicates a restoration of 
conditions that were disturbed by pure class-teach- 
ing. It represents an element saved from failure. 
The attendance in our High School will soon be 
doubled as a result of this saving, whereas the in- 
crease in our first primary grade will not reach 20 
per cent. These facts are convincing us that the 
dropping out of children and young people is not 
due entirely, nor even mainly, to necessity. It is 
due mainly to the discouragement, failure and 
physical breakdown promoted by educating en 
masse. We are convinced that by a due amount of 
individual instruction, combined with a proper 
amount of class work, we are taking away all the 



172 The Science of Education 

strain and health-destroying worry that have been 
but too common in our graded-school system. And 
we are convinced that we are building up health, 
confidence, efficiency and ambition." 

406. School evils banished. — The point of in- 
terest in the Batavia plan is the transfer of oppor- 
tunity to the pupil. The teachers direct the ac- 
tivity, and soon the pupil's consciousness of prog- 
ress turns self-activity toward self-realization. That 
is real teaching; directive effort is centered upon 
the pupil, not upon external organization. Other 
cities tried the Batavia plan, but some experiment- 
ers were dissatisfied. Among the satisfactory re- 
ports is one from Superintendent Holmes, of 
Westerley, Rhode Island. He finds, among other 
things, that nagging and scolding disappear and 
teachers and pupils become cheerful and happy; 
there is such cheerful obedience to lawful authority 
that stern methods of discipline become unneces- 
sary; there is no detention after school for disci- 
pline; all work is done in the school-room; when 
school is out the children are free ; pupils are all 
promoted; the attendance in upper grammar 
grades and high schools is nearly as good as in the 
primary grades, the high-school population increas- 
ing to a remarkable degree; the dull and backward 
pupil is shown to possess, superior mental powers; 
the laggard is made a leader; and stumbling 
blocks are converted into stepping stones. 

407. Home lesson. — For arguments for and 
against, see Methods in Education, page 64. 






School Administration 173 

Corporal Punishment 

408. Viewpoint. — The tendency throughout 
the civilized world is toward the prohibition of 
corporal punishment. The abuse of the privilege 
is one reason for prohibitory laws, but a far better 
reason is a growing belief that the use of corporal 
punishment makes fear the source of order, whereas 
interest should lead through the self-activity of the 
child to a habit of permanent self-control. This 
theoretical perfection of character harmonizes with 
the theory of moral training in New York City. 
The positive effort substitutes desirable habits for 
undesirable tendencies, and thus the negative is not 
made unduly emphatic. To enforce this viewpoint, 
study pages 65 to 76 in Methods in Education. 

409. Suggestion. — Make an outline that you 
would be willing to follow in discussing punish- 
ment. See any good text on school management, 
McEvoy's Answers in School Management, or chapter 
XXIV in Dexter and Garlick's Psychology. 

410. An old view. — Discuss the following quo- 
tation: . "Punishment must naturally follow the 
offense and be proportioned to it." 

The old view of this doctrine permitted the 
teacher to get even with the pupil for every breach 
of discipline. Retribution had a prominent place 
in punishment. External means were applied to 
the external side of the offense, although such pun- 
ishment in many cases tended to aggravate it. If 
a boy played truant for a day it was considered 
proper to force him to stay after school long enough 



174 The Science of Education 

to make up for the number of hours he had missed 
on account of his truancy. If a girl annoyed her 
teacher by whispering, that girl had to endure an 
equivalent amount of annoyance in some other 
form from the teacher. In both these cases the 
punishment failed to reach the source of the of- 
fense, namely, the will of the pupil. If the school 
is a spiritual unity, forming a part of organized 
society, it should look to the spiritual cause of the 
offense and apply a spiritual remedy. This idea is 
made prominent in School Management, by Tomp- 
kins. Quotation follows: 

"An offense, then, is the action of the will, on 
the part of either pupil or teacher, which negatives 
the will creating and sustaining the school, — the 
will as embodied in, and interpreted by, the teacher 
and school officers. It is the individual's purpose 
set counter to the whole. This makes the applica- 
tion of the law clear. If correction, or punishment, 
naturally follows the offense, it is by an action of 
the will in the offender; and if it be proportioned 
to the offense, it must completely reverse the wrong 
action of the will. The pupil who breaks the spirit- 
ual unity of the school by choosing against it, must 
reverse that choice before he has cancelled his of- 
fense. This makes his punishment naturally follow 
the offense, and proportions it to the offense; for 
he simply undoes his wrong act, and thereby re- 
stores himself to the institution. The pupil alone 
has the power to sever his connection with the 
school; and he alone has the power to reinstate 
himself when once out. No mechanical process 



School Administration 175 

can restore the pupil whose mind is at variance 
with the institution; he must reinstate himself by 
changing his spiritual attitude. 

"Thus briefly we have suggested how to restore 
the unity when broken: The pupil who breaks the 
unity must, by his own act of mind,, restore it. And 
the law of punishment at the outset means just 
this: the deed being in the will, the punishment 
must be there too; and when the will has can- 
celled its own deed, the punishment is exactly pro- 
portioned to the offense. Anything beyond this is 
gratuitous on the part of the teacher, and an ag- 
gression on the rights of the pupil. The idea of 
retribution is thus excluded." 

Self -Government 

411. Student self-government. — Think of the 
features and the limitations. Such plans are in 
operation in both elementary and high schools in 
this city. See chapter VII, Dutton's School Manage- 
ment. 

412. School cities. — A new development of the 
public school system is being tested in New York, 
Philadelphia and some New England cities. It is 
the establishment of "School Cities," with the basic 
principle of self-government, on the line of the 
government of the United States. 

The first "City School" was established in the 
Norfolk Street School, New York, in 1897, by Wil- 
son L. Gill, as an experiment. In 1898 the Phila- 
delphia school board introduced the system as an 



176 The Science of Education 

experiment,, and now has thirty-three "school 
cities" in as many different schools. 

The U. S. Government was so impressed by the 
idea that in 1900 Mr. Gill was sent to Cuba to in- 
troduce the school city into the schools of the new 
republic during the American occupancy, and the 
following two years he organized 800 "school 
cities" in the island. 

A National School City League was organized a 
few weeks ago in Washington, which aims to gather 
in all the scattered elements interested and to push 
the organization of school cities vigorously. Mr. 
Gill has been retained as national organizer and 
lecturer, and various organizations have been asked 
to lend their influence to the movement. 

The interest aroused may be judged by the re- 
sponse of the Massachusetts Federation of Wom- 
en's Clubs. This body recently appointed a com- 
mittee to push the movement until a school city 
shall be organized in every city of Massachusetts. 

Mr. Gill points out the object of the "school city" 
in this manner: 

"There are sometimes boards, sometimes not. 
In all details of government the school city tries to 
follow the government of the larger city in which 
it is located," he said. 

"The school city is not a mimic government, but 
a miniature government. Did you ever stop to 
think that while the American child is destined to 
take his place in a democratic government he is 
brought up under an autocracy? He has autocratic 
government at home, he has autocratic government 



School Administration 177 

at school. The rule of his parents may be too 
indulgent or too severe, but in either case it is gov- 
ernment imposed upon him from without. 

"He goes to school and finds another autocratic 
force ready to impose government upon him. If it 
were not for the rough and tumble democracy 
which the children get among themselves they 
would all grow up little serfs. As it is, the pre- 
eminent lesson taught them by every form of gov- 
ernment with which they come in contact, from 
parent to policeman, is respect for authority. 

"Now, respect for authority is right and neces- 
sary in its place, but it is not the American ideal. 
It is an Oriental ideal. The American ideal is self- 
government ; a finding out of the right thing to do 
and then doing it of your own accord because it is 
best for all concerned. 

"These are the ideals of democracy, unattained 
though they may be. And it is wonderful to see 
how well and easily the children carry them out in 
the school city, and what a difference self-govern- 
ment makes in their attitude toward rules. 

"They readily make laws concerning punctuality, 
for instance. They are perfectly capable of seeing 
that the class work will be broken up if members 
are to come in whenever they please. They will 
hold court and pass on cases of tardiness, elucidat- 
ing the cause and deciding on penalties with the ut- 
most gravity and fairness. 

"In the Daniel L. Keyser School of Philadelphia, 
the first arrests were made for profanity in the 
school yard. This was a surprise to the teachers, 



178 The Science of Education 

for they did not know such offenses were being 
committed. The judge in each case sentenced the 
offender not to speak to any person at recess time 
for a stated period, and every pupil in school seemed 
actively interested in seeing that the order of the 
court was carried out. Such sending to Coventry 
would probably never have occurred to a teacher, 
and had a teacher imposed such a sentence it is 
probable that the pupils would have taken no 
trouble to execute it. 

"One arrest was for trying to pick a fight be- 
cause of an unintentional provocation. The sen- 
tence was to copy neatly and carefully twenty times 
the first law of the school city code, which was: 

"Do unto others as you wish them to do to you. 
This is the natural law, without which no popular 
government can succeed, and it is the general law 
of this School City, to which all other laws and reg- 
ulations must conform. 

"The ambition to hold an office to which they 
have been elected by their fellow citizens is a most 
potent influence in the school city, and the influence 
of an office in transforming the conduct and even 
the appearance of some pupils has been very 
marked. 

"Any other art, trade, occupation or profession 
whatever, we spend time and effort to teach our 
children if we expect them to know it. But the art 
of living in a democratic community, the art of self- 
government, we give them not a hint of. 

"We let them come up under totally autocratic 
government, we give them not a glimpse into the 






School Administration 179 

practical workings of popular government, and 
when they are of voting age they are ripe for gang 
rule and blind partisanship." 

The new national School City League has Wil- 
liam L. Gill, Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, as 
its president; Ralph Albertson, Jamaica Plain, 
Boston, secretary; and George H. Shibley, Bliss 
Building, Washington, treasurer. — Maryland Edu- 
cational Journal, October 15, 1905. 

413. References. 

Arnold. School and Class Management. 

Bagley. School Room Management. 

Dutton. School Management. 

Landon. School Management. 

McEvoy. Answers in School Management. 

Perry. The Management of a City School. 

White. School Management. 



CHAPTER XIII 

APPROVED SET OF ANSWERS 

This set of High School questions is answered by 
a person in authority. While no two candidates 
would answer exactly alike, this paper furnishes 
a model which is approved by the Board of Exam- 
iners. This was an examination in the Science of 
Education applied to English as a specialty. Time, 
three hours. 

413. State three tests (aside from reviews or exam- 
inations) which may enable a teacher to estimate a 
pupil's understanding of the class work. Illustrate 
these three tests. 

In English teaching an estimate may be made of 
a pupil's understanding of class work by the fol- 
lowing three tests: Interest, the Recitation, and 
Growth of power. 

1. Interest. — Interest grows out of appercep- 
tion. If the pupil is deeply interested in class work 
we have evidence that he understands it, since it 
is impossible to be interested long in what we do 
not comprehend. Interest has been employed as 
a test of successful teaching for many years in the 
evening schools of New York City. It has been 
the custom to discharge teachers if their attend- 
ance fell below a certain figure. As Evening 

180 



Approved Set of Answers 181 

School attendance is entirely voluntary, the power 
to hold a class together for a season of six months 
is almost entirely a question of interesting the 
pupils by successful teaching. 

2. The Recitation. — The recitation is primarily 
a teaching instrument but it is also incidentally a 
test. Unskillful teachers usually reverse these two 
offices, using the recitation primarily as a test and 
only incidentally to teach. The good teacher needs 
hardly any other test than the recitation to meas- 
ure the fidelity and success of his pupils. If they 
are interested, they will reveal their interest in the 
attention they give to the recitation and the pleas- 
ure they derive from it. The answers they give to 
questions; the remarks they contribute in discus- 
sions; the questions they ask; the fidelity with 
which they prepare their written exercises, per- 
form experiments and record observations, are all 
data whereby the progress of children may be ac- 
curately gauged. 

3. Growth of Power. — The third test of the 
pupil's success is his growth in power. The teacher 
who tests all children by a uniform dead-level of 
results achieved is liable to do injustice to pupils, 
while he misinforms himself. For instance: The 
writer recently heard a fourth-year class read in a 
third reader. Most of the pupils read very fluently, 
and seemed to understand perfectly what they read. 
Finally one little boy got up who read haltingly 
and enunciated very indistinctly and inaccurately. 
On inquiry it transpired that this child had come 
from Italy only eleven months before. Judged by 



182 The Science of Education 

the absolute standard of success he had failed in 
his reading utterly; but judged by his growth in 
power he made a brilliant recitation. 

Teachers often take credit to themselves for the 
success of very bright pupils, when, as a matter of 
fact, they deserve no thanks at all. Unless every 
pupil shows progress the teacher has not been en- 
tirely successful. A pupil is doing good work only 
if he can show progress daily, weekly, monthly, all 
along the line of his educational endeavor. 

414. What is the imagination ? State with reasons 
your views as to the importance of cultivation of the 
imagination as a part of education. How may the 
imagination be developed through the study of your 
specialty ? Illustrate. 

Imagination. — Imagination is the power of form- 
ing mental images by uniting different parts or 
qualities of objects given by perception. It also has 
the power of creating ideals of objects different 
from anything we have perceived. An image is a 
revived percept of any kind. An idea is any product 
of the representative power, whether percept or 
concept. (Sully). 

Imagination involves reproduction and produc- 
tion. It revives our past experience and works it 
up into new products. In producing the new it has 
the power to change the form of the material and 
its relations to time and place and circumstances. 
There are several kinds of imagination. Phantasy 
is a play of ideas uncontrolled by the laws of 
thought or of probability. All dreams come under 
this head; so also do caricatures and grotesque 



Approved Set of Answers 183 

ideas such as we find in Baron Munchausen, Alice 
in Wonderland, and certain stories of Kipling. 
Fancy is a little higher than phantasy, and involves 
more regulation of the process by the power of will. 
Longfellow's comparison of the moon to a paper 
kite is a fancy. Young children and young poets 
incline to the fanciful. 

Creative Imagination. — Creative imagination is 
the voluntary process of combining images into 
new forms. Its products are ideals. Idealization is 
the process of fixing the attention upon the most 
satisfying example of the actual, and withdrawing 
the attention from its defects, until it stands before 
the mind as an ideal example. In this way the 
imagination idealizes the forms of space to create 
geometry. In art the Greek masterpieces are 
ideals; in religion Christ is an ideal of moral per- 
fection. 

The principal duty of the teacher in regard to the 
imagination of children is to guide the fancy and 
gradually to transform it into creative imagination. 
This is done by supplying suitable exercises and 
materials for creative work. 

The importance of imagination in the life of a 
child may be readily appreciated when we reflect 
that play is nearly the whole of his spontaneous 
activity. A child's mental life is thus as rich as the 
adult's. What he lacks of experience as an organ 
of apperception, fancy supplies. He sees in his 
rude toys a thousand attributes and actions with 
which his imagination endows them. 

The higher forms of imagination are modes of 



184 The Science of Education 

apperception. All literature is the product of 
imagination. The difference between good prose 
which is not literature and prose which is literature, 
is the element contributed by the imagination. One 
may readily see this difference by comparing a pass- 
age from Sewell or Ruskin with a paragraph from 
an ordinary scientific work. 

Such being the character of literature, it is one 
of the very best subjects for cultivating the imag- 
ination of children. This cultivation may be 
brought about by the critical and appreciative study 
of masterpieces and by imitations and original com- 
positions of a similar character. Especially impor- 
tant is the use of the imagination in the ethical life 
of the child. Sympathy and other altruistic senti- 
ments depend largely upon the power of imagina- 
tion. Imagination gives value and dignity to 
human existence. Without it life is poor and bar- 
ren and sordid ; with it we are able to find "tongues 
in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in 
stones, and good in everything." 

415. ( a ) State in the order of importance what you 
regard as the three main objects or ends to be kept in view 
by the high school teacher. Give reasons for your ar- 
rangement, (b) State how the teaching of your subject 
may be used toward these ends. 

(a) The objects of secondary education may be 
variously conceived and expressed. Perhaps as 
good a summary as any of these ends is the follow- 
ing: Interest, Culture, Freedom. 

Interest. — In offering interest as a school end, 
we are following the Herbartians, who would say 



Approved Set of Answers 185 

that the object of all teaching is to give the pupil 
an appetite for knowledge. If we do not succeed 
in creating such a desire for further light we have 
no guarantee that the pupil will continue his edu- 
cation after school days are over. 

Culture. — The secondary school dates from the 
Renaissance. It has always stood for culture and 
discipline. There is a strong effort to make it a 
utility school on the part of many teachers and 
laymen, who insist that education must be "practi- 
cal." The two-year commercial course in the High 
school is a result of this movement. But the friends 
of true education have stood firm thus far and the 
High school as a typical institution has a stiff course 
of purely culture studies. The teacher is to set up 
this aim as one of the goals of his instruction. 
Facts, formal studies, recitations, all school exer- 
cises, yield their true value only if they give the 
pupil culture. By culture is meant training, de- 
velopment, refinement of mind, morals and taste. 

Freedom. — The third object of secondary teach- 
ing is freedom — intellectual and moral independ- 
ence. Hence the aim of the teacher must be to 
emancipate the pupil from the necessity of super- 
vision. This is accomplished by compelling him to 
perform for himself set tasks, by training in ob- 
servation and the exact methods of science, and by 
independent book study. Moral freedom is attained 
by self-control. The discipline therefore must as- 
sume that the pupil is a rational being who is able 
and willing to do right. So far as possible he is to 
be left to his honor and sense of what is right. Re- 



186 The Science of Education 

pressive measures must be eliminated and constant 
appeal to the better instincts and growing prompt- 
ings of conscience substituted. 

The moral freedom is the supreme aim; it is 
therefore placed last. "The term virtue expresses 
the whole purpose of education." These are the 
opening words of Herbart's famous "Outlines of 
Educational Doctrine." Culture ranks next in im- 
portance. For this reason it is placed second. He 
who has culture is first a man, with cultivated mind, 
able to use his powers for the benefit of mankind in 
whatever direction he chooses to apply himself. 

(b) It is not difficult to surmise how literature 
may be used to secure the ends thus set forth. In- 
terest is secured by giving the pupil literary works 
adapted to this capacity, of such transcendent merit 
that he will want to read more of the same sort. 
The methods of study is to be heuristic. The pupil 
must study and appreciate the actual books, rather 
than learn things about books. Thus will he get 
the culture which is the second aim of study. There 
is no other subject so well adapted as literature to 
train children in ethical purpose. The contents of 
all literary works is ethical. Hence the study Of 
such works is training in ethical insight, and all such 
training leads to that moral freedom which is the 
supreme end of education. 

416. Answer (a) or (b). (a) What are the most 
noteworthy features of the views on education of the fol- 
lowing writers: Milton, Ruskin, Spencer f (b) What 
three writers do you regard as the most notable inno- 
vators in the history of education since 1600? What in 



Approved Set of Answers 187 

substance did each contribute to the development of mod- 
ern education? 

(b) The three most notable innovators in edu- 
cation since 1600 were, doubtless, Rousseau (1712- 
1778), Pestalozzi (1746-1827), and Froebel (1783- 
1852). It is not contended that they necessarily 
invented or discovered the greatest number of new 
devices or principles of education; but judged by 
the influence which they exerted upon the progress 
of modern education, they tower above all other 
figures in the history of the period. 

1. Rousseau. — Rousseau represented a move- 
ment called Romanticism,, of which his theories of 
education were but an incident. A large group of 
philosophers and another of literary artists formed 
a part of this phase of human progress. One of its 
cardinal principles was the enthusiasm for nature 
and for naturalism in art and life, as opposed to the 
artificialities in vogue when the movement origi- 
nated. Rousseau's political theories were even 
more important than his educational doctrine, for 
to these is commonly attributed the French Revo- 
lution and the modern passion for political free- 
dom. As a man Rousseau was thoroughly detest- 
able. He was a shameless rake, a man with no con- 
sistent principle of rectitude or honor, an erratic 
genius. But he was a genius and hence, partly be- 
cause the times were ripe for a man of his type, his 
influence upon education has been prodigious. 

Rousseau knew little or nothing of the art of 
schoolmastering. The Emilie is simply an applica- 
tion of Rousseau's principles of society and life to 



188 The Science of Education 

education. The scheme outlined is thoroughly im- 
practicable, often ridiculous, sometimes immoral, 
and would produce instead of civilized beings, a 
generation of monstrosities. But in spite of these 
defects, the author has hit, as if by instinct, upon 
many of the profoundest educational truths, and 
has expressed and illustrated them with a force and 
a charm which make his works immortal. 

2. Pestalozzi. — Part of Rousseau's influence is 
due to the great men he stimulated to apply his 
principles in a rational way to elementary educa- 
tion. 

It was Rousseau's Contrat Social which made Pes- 
talozzi give up the theological career to which he 
had intended to devote himself. And thus Pesta- 
lozzi became the missionary of public elementary 
education. What Kant is to modern philosophy, 
Pestalozzi is to modern pedagogy. Pestalozzi's 
work is the foundation of the modern public school; 
for prior to his day, in spite of Luther's great work 
and Francke's, and Rochow's, popular education, as 
we now understand it, did not exist. The history of 
the common school during the nineteenth century 
is largely the history of Pestalozzianism. The es- 
sence of this new doctrine is that the gospel of edu- 
cation has been preached to the poor, and that the 
schoolmaster is exhorted to discard his dead and 
abstract formulas, and bring the child in contact 
with realities. It is, after all, merely the theory of 
Rousseau, but it is worked out in detail and prop- 
agated by a humane, God-fearing, fatherly mission- 
ary, whose enthusiasm enkindles a continent. 



Approved Set of Answers 189 

3. Froebel. — Froebel in his turn, was inspired 
by Pestalozzi, and the kindergarten, which stands 
to his credit, is a concrete form of Rousseau's doc- 
trine of naturalism as embodied in the beginnings 
of education. Education by play, it will be seen, 
is but the recognition of the principle of naturalism ; 
for play is the very life of the infant. 

Froebel's greatness is growing. We are just be- 
ginning to realize the possibilities of the kinder- 
garten. And the principles of the kindergarten are 
applicable to all elementary education, and have 
largely transformed the primary school. 

417. In what zwys and to what extent has the ad- 
vance in natural science, physical or psychological, during 
the last half century influenced the teaching of your sub- 
ject ? Specify changes that have taken place during the pe- 
riod mentioned, in the method of teaching your subject. 

The advance in psychology during the last half 
century has profoundly influenced the teaching of 
English,, as it has that of all other subjects. The old, 
psychology was introspective and considered the 
mental life entirely from the adult point of view. 
The thoughts and feelings and experiences of the 
psychologist were read into the minds of children, 
and as a consequence false methods of teaching 
were evolved. Since the publication of Fechner's 
epoch-making book on psycho-physics, psychologi- 
cal research has followed more and more closely the 
quantitative methods of physical science and has 
given us body of fact, and principles on the life and 
development of children by which educational 
theory and practice have been revolutionized. 



190 The Science of Education 

Among- the changes in English teaching which a 
better understanding of the child mind has brought 
about are the following: 

1. It is demonstrated that the process of learn- 
ing involves a passing from the whole to parts and 
from parts to the whole. The normal method is to 
begin with the whole. Expressed in other terms, 
learning consists of two complementary phases, 
analysis and synthesis. Analysis is always first, but 
the process is never complete without the synthetic 
half. Applied to the teaching of reading, these prin- 
ciples make it plain that the alphabetic method is 
wrong, since it begins with the parts and by acts of 
synthesis proceeds to the whole, which is the word 
or sentence. Hence we have had many new ways 
of teaching reading, nearly all of which begin with 
the word or sentence and proceed by analysis to the 
parts or letters. Methods of reading, whose adver- 
tised merit is that they are "synthetic," are there- 
fore to be strongly suspected. 

2. Another reform of great consequence has 
taken place during the past fifteen years in the 
teaching of reading. The movement had its origin 
in the conviction on the part of President Eliot and 
others that reading was too formal; that reading 
is but a means and not an end, and that so soon as 
the mechanical elements are mastered it should be 
used as a vehicle to transmit the contents of litera- 
ture to the child. This reform, which was greatly 
assisted by the discussions and reports of the Com- 
mittee of Ten and the Committee of Fifteen, has revo- 



Approved Set of Answers 191 

lutionized the school readers and the courses of 
study throughout the length and breadth of the 
land. Courses of study in the elementary school 
now demand, in the upper grades, the critical and 
appreciative study of masterpieces of literature, and 
the school readers are no longer made up of "use- 
ful information" and twaddle on moral subjects in- 
vented by the compilers of readers. But they con- 
tain,, even in the lowest numbers, pieces that pos- 
sess genuine literary merit. So that instead of read- 
ing about "Jane's Doll" and "Jack's Top," the boys 
and girls of the second and third grades read the 
poems of Longfellow, Field and Cary. 

In the secondary and collegiate courses similar 
changes have occurred. Formerly, courses in liter- 
ature consisted largely of the mastery of treatises 
about literature and its creators. Now they consist 
of the concrete, first-hand study of entire master- 
pieces representing authors or types of literary 
form. 

The changes may be summed up by saying that 
the courses in English have been infinitely enriched 
by placing the emphasis on the subject-matter of 
literature rather than on the mere form of mechan- 
ical aspect. 

418. Explain the following terms: Manual training, 
Correlation, Culture Epoch Theory, Humanism, The 
Formal Steps in Instruction. 

Manual Training. — Manual training as used in 
modern educational writings, means usually manu- 
mental training, or the training of the mind through 
muscular expression. It is supposed that there is 



I92 -The Science of Education 

no mental activity without a corresponding brain 
action. Brain activity is localized. Certain areas 
of the cortex are devoted to special functions. Thus 
there is the motor area, whence are controlled all 
voluntary muscular movements, the intellectual 
area, and some known centers devoted to the vari- 
ous senses. It is contended that if a child has only 
intellectual exercises, and little or no work involv- 
ing the larger muscles, only a portion of the brain is 
exercised. Hence all forms of construction are 
looked upon as means of exercising the motor area 
of the brain. Exercise demands increased circula- 
tion, and this means increased nutrition. Hence 
work in iron, wood and clay, as well as sewing and 
cooking, are looked upon as the expression of 
thought in three dimensions. They are, therefore, 
manumental training. 

Correlation. — Correlation means many things 
To Harris it means the adaptation of the child to his 
environment. This is accomplished by revealing to 
him nature and human nature through five subjects, 
which are regarded as windows of the soul. These 
are mathematics, geography, grammar, literature, 
history. Usually, correlation means the studying 
of things that are closely related in such a way that 
they mutually help each other; as, for example, his- 
tory and geography. Some writers, like Parker and 
the Herbartians, prefer concentration as the generic 
term to represent the notion of correlation. Parker 
and Herbart, however, have nothing in common ex- 
cept the name. 

The Culture Epoch Theory. — The culture epoch 



Approved Set of Answers 193 

theory of the Herbartians and others assumes that 
there is such a thing as psychogenesis ; that is, that 
the individual child repeats in his mental develop- 
ment the steps that have been taken by the develop- 
ment of man as a species. Taking certain typical 
stages of development like Egypt, Greece, Rome, 
etc., this theory assumes that the culture material 
selected from these civilizations fit more or less ac- 
curately different stages in the development of chil- 
dren. The course of study is, therefore, selected in 
accordance with the principle of psychogenesis. 

Humanism. — Humanism is that theory of educa- 
tion which believes with Pope that "the proper 
study of mankind is man." Many things in this 
•world are worth knowing, but the knowledge of 
most worth is knowledge of man and of his 
thoughts and creations. The theory claims that 
science has no ethical contents, that its facts are 
non-moral. Ethical insight can only be cultivated 
by the study of literature and history, where the 
motives of human action are laid bare, and the evo- 
lution of institutional life is exhibited. 

The Formal Steps. — The formal steps are the 
parts which the Herbartians say are necessary to a 
complete recitation. These steps grow out of Her- 
bart's admirable analysis of the process of apper- 
ception. Writers differ as to the number of neces- 
sary steps,, but the numbers usually given range 
from three to five. DeGarmo enumerates four 
stages, as follows: (1) Preparation; (2) Pre- 
sentation; (3^1 Formulation; (4) Application. 



CHAPTER XIV 
QUESTIONS AND TYPICAL ANSWERS 

419. Types of answers. — The questions in this 
chapter are from the examinations for license to 
teach in the high schools in New York City. The 
answers are such as would be accepted on ex- 
aminations of this kind. Some answers are more 
comprehensive than the answers that could be 
written under a time limit of three hours, but our 
purpose is to give enough to satisfy students whose 
time for preparation is limited. The memorizing 
verbatim is not advised; study, reflection and 
practice in written expression are the steps for all 
who wish to be exponents of education as develop- 
ment. 

On Education 

420. Meaning of education. — "To prepare us 
for complete living is the function which education 
has to discharge. * * * It behooves us to set 
before ourselves, and ever to keep clearly in view, 
complete living as the end to be achieved; so that 
in bringing up our children we may choose sub- 
jects and methods of instruction with deliberate 
reference to this end." — Herbert Spencer. 

"Education has for its aim the development of 
the powers of man," — Standard Dictionary. 

194 



Questions and Typical Answers 195 

Explain what is implied in these tivo viezvs of educa- 
tion, contrast them, and indicate the effect of applying 
each. 

Answer. Believing, as he did, that the educa- 
tion prevailing in his time was an aimless survival 
of traditionalism, Herbert Spencer undertook to 
set instruction on a firm foundation by answering 
the question, "What knowledge is of most worth?" 
and making that answer the basis of his system. 
Now with him, the value of any knowledge de- 
pended on its relation to "complete living" in the 
widest sense. Accordingly he undertook to de- 
termine the relative value of different kinds of 
knowledge, by their bearing on the various activi- 
ties of life. These activities he defined in the order 
of their importance, as activities relating to (1) di- 
rect self-preservation; (2) indirect self-preserva- 
tion (i. e. earning a living) ; (3) the rearing and 
discipline of children; (4) social and political rela- 
tions; and (5) the cultivation of the tastes and 
feelings. Taking up each of the activities in turn, 
he attempted to prove that natural science is the 
best instrument for developing it. 

Further, classifying knowledge as being of value 
(1) intrinsic, (2) quasi-intrinsic and (3) conven- 
tional, he contended that the facts and principles 
of natural science were of the greatest intrinsic 
value, while the worth of the subjects mainly 
taught was merely conventional; as for instance, 



196 The Science of ±lducation 

Latin verse-making - , or the biographies of kings 
and queens. 

Again, considering mental acquirement for its 
worth (1) as knowledge, and (2) as discipline, he 
argued that the knowledge which possessed the 
greatest intrinsic value, was also, by a wise 
economy of nature, the best instrument of mental 
discipline. For instance, he would say that the 
making of Latin verse, worthless by any standard 
of intrinsic value, could not be defended as mental 
discipline, when some other study, e. g., physics, of 
high intrinsic worth, possessed a greater disciplin- 
ary value, as dealing with facts systematically re,- 
lated and serving to develop the logical memory. 
In brief, Mr. Spencer's view was an apotheosis of 
natural science, as Butler called it. 

The second definition is not opposed to Herbert 
Spencer's when understood in the highest sense, 
for, according to him, natural science, which pre- 
pares for complete living, is also the best agent for 
developing the powers of the mind. This second 
definition seems to emphasize the idea for studies 
for discipline apart from their value for practical 
living. Liberally interpreted, this latter definition 
may be understood to mean education as Butler 
defines it, "a gradual adjustment to the spiritual 
possessions of the race; the five inheritances of the 
child, scientific, literary, aesthetic, institutional and 
religious." The definition puts the studies which 
develop the emotions, imagination, and will, on a 
level with those which mainly cultivate the judg- 
ment. It is the ideal and cultural aspect of educa- 



Questions and Typical Answers 197 

tion in contrast with the practical and utilitarian 
view of Herbert Spencer. 

The field of education is broad enough for both 
these view r s. Each must be used to correct and in- 
terpret the other. The former must make a place 
for literature, music and art on the same level with 
anatomy and physics, else it would tend to reduce 
education to a sort of mechanico-mental engineer- 
ing. The latter, while exalting the spiritual and 
aesthetic aspects of education, must not lose sight 
of the fundamental activities of human life, with- 
out which there can be reared no superstructure of 
the highest culture. 

421. Meaning of education. 

The proximate aim of education, I take it, is to 
make the child, within himself, strong and self- 
reliant ; in his experience, sensible and thorough : 
in his work, cheerful and earnest; in his attitude 
towards others, sympathetic and helpful ; in short, 
to lead him to individual, social and universal 
efficiency. — IV. N. Hailman. 

(a) Discuss this vieiv of education in the light of your 
own study and experience, criticising it favorably and 
adversely, if you have adverse criticisms. 

(b) What is the meaning of social "efficiency ' ? 

(c) Enumerate other desirable aims of education as 
given in definitions you have studied. 

Answer. The consciousness of self-development 
or self-realization has long been an aim of true edu- 
cation. This consciousness does produce strength 
and self-reliance, because it is the result of victory 
over difficulties. 



198 The Science of Education 

The view of education given in the above quota- 
tion might be criticised as failing to bring out the 
idea of race inheritance. 

(a) Social efficiency means the development of 
that power or powers in the individual which will 
make him most useful in the group or class to 
which he belongs. 

(b) Home speaks of the "superior adjustment of 
the individual to his environment" as the great aim 
of education. 

Butler brings out the need of giving to each indi- 
vidual his spiritual inheritance by which he means, 
the scientific, literary, institutional,, religious and 
aesthetic possessions of the race. 

Spencer makes "complete living" the aim. This 
he -explains as follows: "Complete living is that 
kind of living which makes for direct and indirect 
self-preservation, proper rearing of young, proper 
performance of the duties of citizenship, and 
proper enjoyment of the leisure of life." 

422. Education: meaning of adaptation, many- 
sided environment, efficiency. 

"Education, then, as a concrete matter becomes 
the shaping and guiding of the development of the 
child towards adaptation to and appreciation of his 
many-sided environment; it is an adaptation which 
includes the development of efficiency." — Butler. 

(a) Explain "adaptation/' "many-sided environment," 
"efficiency." 

(b) Show how the study of your specialty may con- 



Questions and Typical Answers 199 

tribute to the student's education in the respects men- 
tioned in the foregoing excerpts. 

Answer applied to Latin, (a) The late Pro- 
fessor John Fiske pointed out the significance from 
an evolutionary standpoint of the greatly prolonged 
period of human infancy. He showed that just as it 
was by the superior development of his brain and 
mental life that man in his long race-infancy so far 
outstripped his fellow creatures in the struggle for 
existence, just so the human child requires a long 
period of infancy to repeat the history of the race 
and to become fitted to meet the conditions of mod- 
ern human life, so vastly more complex than that 
of any other animal. In- the first few years the 
child attains the race inheritance in his physical 
life ; but by far the greater part of his infancy, ex- 
tending perhaps as late as his twenty-first year, is 
concerned with the development of his intellectual 
and moral life so that he may be able to meet all 
the demands of human existence. This is what is 
meant by adaptation, — the child repeating the ex- 
perience of the race, so as to become fitted to live 
well the complex of the most advanced civilization. 

Human life is indeed very complex. Aside from 
physical development, which must always be ac- 
corded a liberal share in any scheme of education, 
the race has progressed in the realm of the mental 
and moral life in various ways which call for sepa- 
rate consideration. We might consider the subject 
under Herbert Spencer's well-known, fivefold 
classification of human activities ; or for the pur- 
poses of education aside from the physical, we may 



200 The Science of Education 

well use Butler's classification of race-inheritances 
to which the child is entitled. These are (i) the 
scientific, (2) the literary, (3) the institutional, 
(4) the aesthetic, and (5) the religious inheritances. 
These five race-inheritances of Butler's together 
with the physical inheritance, constitute the en- 
vironment of the child in the relation to life. In 
view of the above classification of inheritances and 
environments of the child, the meaning of the term 
"many-sided" is obvious. 

Now the prolonged period of human infancy, in 
which the child is to come into his race-inherit- 
ances, is a period of preparation for complete living. 
Education, as has been asserted by Locke, Rous- 
seau, Herbert Spenceer and others, and as is now 
the prevailing doctrine, is not for the university, 
but for life. In other words, viewing it from an 
evolutionary point of view, education is to enable 
the child to become successful as an individual, in 
the struggle for existence, and also to take his place 
and fulfill his larger duties in the social and institu- 
tional life of which he is a part. That is what is 
meant by "efficiency." It is a restatement of Her- 
bert Spencer's doctrine of complete living. See 
section 74. 

(b) The study of Latin, while contributing to 
some extent to the institutional and aesthetic in- 
heritances of the child, derives its chief value from 
its bearing on the literary inheritance. It was the 
use and growth of language, perhaps, as much as 
any one single part, that raised the ancestors of 
man above their fellows of the brute creation. 



Questions and Typical Answers 201 

Thought without expression perishes with the 
original thinker. The ability to use language 
clearly and forcibly in speech or writing, is a sense 
of power to any man of whatsoever occupation or 
trade. 

The study of Latin can be defended mainly as it 
leads to efficiency in the use of English. This it 
does in several ways : (i) by enlarging the vocabu- 
lary through a knowledge of Latin derivation of 
English words; (2) by the growth of power in 
choice of words, one of the chief factors in good 
writing or speaking. This the study of Latin ac- 
complishes by constant practice in translation, a 
process involving a careful analysis of thought and 
weighing of words, discriminating as to all their 
niceties and shades of meaning. (3) By acquaint- 
ance with masterpieces of structure and expression, 
for example, the masterful oratorical periods of 
Cicero, and the majestic, stately flow of the Ver- 
gilian hexameters. Such a study of Latin brings 
an insight into the structure and function of 
language much more certainly attained thus than 
by an exclusive attention to the mother tongue. 

423. Education. — Name the five evidences of educa- 
tion enumerated by Butler. 

Answer. 

1. Correctness and precision in the use of the 
mother tongue. 

2. The refined and gentle manners which are 
the expression of fixed habits of thought and ac- 
tion. 

3. The power and habit of reflection by which 



202 The Science of Education 

the mind is taught to answer questions as How? 
Why? through science and philosophy. 

4. The power of growth. 

5. The power to do. — Educational Review, No- 
vember, 1 90 1. 

424. Happiness the aim of education. 

The aim of education is to render the individual, 
as much as possible, an instrument of happiness to 
himself, and, next, to other beings. — James Mill. 

Criticise this opinion. 

Answer. "The utmost that we could expect of 
the educator, who is not everybody, is to contribute 
his part to the promotion of human happiness in 
the order stated. No doubt the definition goes 
more completely to the root of the matter than the 
German formula. It does not trouble itself with 
the harmony, the many-sidedness, the wholeness, 
of the individual development : it would admit these 
just as might be requisite for securing the final end. 

"A very different aspect is that wherein the end 
of education is propounded as the promotion of hu- 
man happiness, human virtue, human perfection. 
Probably the qualification will at once be conceded, 
that education is but one of the means, a single 
contributing agency to the all-including end. Never- 
theless, the openings for difference of opinion as to 
what constitutes happiness, virtue or perfection, 
are very wide." 

425. Meaning of education. — Give, within a limit 
of three hundred words, your conception of the meaning 
of education. 



Questions and Typical Answers 203 

Answer. President Butler of Columbia Uni- 
versity defines the meaning of education as a 
gradual adjustment to the spiritual possessions of 
the race. These possessions are grouped under 
five main divisions: A scientific inheritance, a liter- 
ary inheritance, an aesthetic inheritance, an insti- 
tutional inheritance and a religious inheritance. 

Butler's meaning implies a threefold develop- 
ment of the child through his intellectual, moral 
and physical nature. He would have the child 
through self-realization possess the power and will- 
ingness to adapt himself to his environment. To 
do this, the child must appreciate what progress 
other generations have contributed to him, such 
progress being considered an inheritance by Butler. 
The scientific inheritance includes a knowledge of 
geography, nature study, physics and mathematics ; 
the literary inheritance includes all forms of literary 
composition and interpretation ; the aesthetic in- 
heritance includes drawing, music and all other 
kinds of art tending to form a higher conception of 
life ; the institutional inheritance includes political 
geography, civics and history; and the religious in- 
heritance includes all training tending toward spir- 
itual perfection. Butler gives due consideration to 
all the activities of the mind. His meaning of edu- 
cation is apparently the ideal of this generation. 

Spencer defines education as a preparation for 
complete living. He would have the child possess 
that knowledge which is most useful. In complete 
living Spencer includes five activities: direct self- 
preservation, indirect self-preservation, the rearing 



204 The Science of Education 

of children, social demands and citizenship, litera- 
ture and art, etc. Scientifically Spencer would pre- 
pare the child for the activities of life by leading 
him through the same stages of development as 
those experienced by the race in its development." 

Self-preservation is the constant intelligent care 
of the life God has given; indirect self-preservation 
is the required wage-earning to provide the necessi- 
ties of life ; the rearing of children includes attention 
to food and clothing as well as to moral and intel- 
lectual development ; social demands and citizen- 
ship imply service to society and the state; and 
ability to enjoy to the fullest the leisure hours of 
life can be gained through a knowledge of litera- 
ture and art. Spencer makes science the base of all 
knowledge and in so doing, as Butler says, deified 
education. 

By combining the theories of DeGarmo, Herbart, 
Home, Harris, Eliot and Maxwell with those of 
Butler and Spencer, a comprehensive idea of the 
meaning of education may be deduced. That educa- 
tion is a twofold process: the development of the; 
individual and his adjustment to society is the con- 
sensus of opinion among the leaders of present day 
educational thought. The child must be brought 
into possession of the intellectual inheritance of the 
race; he must be taught to care for and develop his 
body that it may be a fitting agent of his mind; his 
hand should be trained to be a skillful tool ; his 
moral education should lead to a courageous, single- 
minded devotion to duty. The individual's measure 
of worth is computed in terms of service. The man, 



Questions and Typical Answers 205 

who, through self-realization, has arrived at the 
fullness of his powers is measured by his efficiency 
in his environment. Home says education is self- 
realization through self-development for self-hood 
and social service. Every educator has dwelt on 
either the development of the individual or his ad- 
justment to society and many lay equal stress on 
both. Nearly two thousand years ago this inter- 
relation of man and society was expressed by the 
Great Teacher in the words, "No man liveth to 
himself." 

426. Same as 425. 

Answer. In order to form an ideal of education, 
we are forced back upon the experience of the past, 
for a basis of judgment. What shall we select out 
of this past experience as the fitting heritage of the 
individual? Butler says the individual is entitled to 
his "scientific, literary, aesthetic, institutional and 
religious inheritance." The spiritual inheritance of 
the race will fall under these divisions. One can 
imagine an individual possessing a large share of 
the first three, and still falling far short of the mod- 
ern ideal of education. But in order really to pos- 
sess his institutional and religious inheritance he 
must have experienced many varied relationships 
with his fellow men. Consequently we find Dewey 
emphasizing "social stimulus," or the adjustment 
of the individual to his environment. But this en- 
vironment is the product of race development in 
successive epochs. The child passes, in a general 
way, through the same stages. Consequently true 
education will seek to give the individual the best 



206 The Science of Education 

products of the race at a time when his develop- 
ment is best suited to receive it. In order, however, 
to arrive at this goal, something more is required 
than merely to give the child his proper mental 
food. He must be enlisted in his own cause, and 
must react in a healthy way upon the stimuli pre- 
sented. In other words, we must arouse him to that 
conscious direction of his own powers, which we 
call self-activity. Then we shall get that happy har- 
monization of interest and effort which produces 
self-realization. When self-activity is once aroused 
on the lines of a many-sided interest, a physical, in- 
tellectual and moral interest, we shall certainly 
have a person of character and efficiency. Such a 
one ought to fulfill Spencer's ideal of "complete 
living." He ought to be able to efficiently provide 
for his direct and indirect self-preservation ; perform 
his duties properly in the rearing of the young; act 
the man's part in the duties of citizenship; and, 
finally, be fitted for the enjoyment of a noble leisure 
in the pursuit and contemplation of the aesthetic 
achievement of the race. 

Terms Defined 

427. Abstraction. — What is abstraction? Illustrate. 
Abstraction is the mental process involved in re- 
taining the common qualities which belong to all 
the individuals of a certain class and rejecting the 
uncommon qualities. A complete process of ab- 
straction results in the concept or general notion. 
It is synonymous with conception. 



Questions and Typical Answers 207 

428. Analogy. — Define, illustrate and criticise rea- 
soning by analogy. 

Analogy is a kind of reasoning in which an infer- 
ence is made on account of the resemblance of two 
things. 

Illustration. Porto Rico, a former Spanish pos- 
session, has inhabitants able to control themselves. 
Then the same is true of the Philippine Islands. 

Criticism. Such reasoning is not conclusive. 
There may be many points of likeness, but one 
great difference can overthrow the similarities. 
Analogy can be used only when the points of like- 
ness are overwhelming. For application in nature 
study, see Dexter and Garlick, 179. 

429. Apperception. 

Apperception is mental assimilation. It is the 
gaining of the understanding of new knowledge by 
means of past experience and knowledge. I see a 
strange flower. I recognize it as a flower by means 
of my former knowledge of flowers I have seen. 

430. Assimilation. — Define assimilation as used in 
psychology. 

Answer. Assimilation is that process in con- 
sciousness by which previously united contents 
form new combinations by uniting with other ma- 
terial. It is a form of mental synthesis. "On the 
nervous side it rests upon the direct coalescence of 
sensory processes." (James.) 

431. Circle of thought. — What is meant by the cir- 
cle of thought, as used by the Hcrbartians? 

The circle of thought for any pupil is the limit 
of personal interest of the pupil in the subject-mat- 



208 The Science of Education 

ter of instruction, or in matters outside of the 
school. It is distinctly the work of education to ex- 
tend the circle of thought so that the pupil may be- 
come interested in as many lines of investigation as 
he is capable of carrying on without reaching the 
result known as smattering in education. The five- 
fold division of the course of study in our element- 
ary schools illustrates a many-sided interest which 
should give every pupil the desired circle of thought 
to prepare him for future efficiency. An application 
of extending the circle of thought is found in Lang's 
Educational Creeds, page 150: "A boy spends his play 
hours in fishing, catching birds or butterflies; and 
he is in danger that his fine feeling, sympathetic 
heart will harden. Would punishment direct the 
content of his will to nobler pursuits ? Would it 
thoroughly cure him? Certainly not. It would 
sooner increase the danger.. The thoughtful edu- 
cator pursues a different course. He seeks to build 
up a new interest in the thought-circle of the boy. 
He calls his attention to the beauty of the flowers, 
explains to him their nature and various kinds, 
shows him how to raise plants and how to take 
care of them, how to press and dry them. The 
probabilities are that he will spend his recreation 
hours in cultivating plants, in botanizing, and in 
making a herbarium." 

432. Clearness. — What is meant by clearness in 
education ? 

Clearness in education is that stage of method in 
which the mind of the pupil apprehends the pre- 
sented facts with clearness of mental vision; the. 



Questions and Typical Answers 209 

first formal step in method is clearness according 
to Herbart. The preparation as usually under- 
stood in the formal steps of instruction is a means 
to clearness. 

433. Harmonious development. 

Harmonious development refers to a balanced de- 
velopment of all human powers. This development 
includes mental, moral and physical training. It is 
what is sometimes called a development of the 
whole man ; and it is the kind of training that Spen- 
cer requires for complete living. 

434. Image. 

A mental image is a revived percept. While read- 
ing the other day I came upon the name "Vine- 
yard Haven." At once there came to mind the 
picture of the Haven as I had seen it one evening 
at sunset, when the different crafts were anchored 
for the night. 

435. Imitation. — Define imitation as ordinarily 
used in education. 

Answer. Imitation is the adoption by a person 
of a thought, a feeling, or a volition, suggested 
by the presence of a similar thought, feeling, or 
volition in his social environment. The latter may 
be copied either consciously or unconsciously. 
Consult Home. 

436. Inhibition. — Shozv meaning and application 
of inhibition in teaching. 

Inhibition means witholding or stopping any 
form of psychological or physical activity. An ex- 
treme effect of fear may inhibit respiration and 
circulation for a moment. A child's attempt to 



210 The Science of Education 

speak on the stage may inhibit the action of the 
salivary glands so much that the mouth seems 
dry. Anger, happiness or fatigue may partially 
inhibit all mental activity for a short time. This 
application of inhibition shows the necessity of 
maintaining uniform working conditions in school. 
Another use of inhibition comes under habita- 
tion. Suppose certain tendencies to evil are ob- 
served. Instead of trying to inhibit the tenden- 
cies by breaking off abruptly, we try to work 
gradually toward disuse by substituting desirable 
habits. Thus we find the words disuse, inhibition, 
substitution and direction under methods of treating 
impulses, instincts and habits. 

437. Learning through self-activity. 
"Learning through self-activity" means that the 

child shall be directed so that his own efforts may 
be the means of education. It involves a knowl- 
edge of what to study, how to study it, and where 
to find it. It presupposes attention to the directions,; 
of the teacher and interest in the matter to be 
mastered. Self-activity is a process tending toward 
self-realization; it is, in fact, the one safe way of 
attaining the fullness of self-development which is 
the aim of all education. 

438. Logical memory. 

A logical memory is a memory which repro- 
duces to minds events or ideas through their logi- 
cal connection or continuity. It differs from mere 
rote memory and recalls by means of association. 
I know the date of the founding of St. Augustine. 
I wish to recall the date of Santa Fe. I have 



Questions and Typical Answers 211 

learned that there are seventeen years' difference. 
I then compute and remember the date of Santa 
Fe. This is example of logical memory. 

439. Manumental training. — What is the connota- 
tion of the term manumental'? 

Answer. The term "manumental" is used in 
order to emphasize the fact that the real function 
of the manual training furnished by other than 
special trade schools must be primarily educative. 
The purpose is not merely to train the hand to 
work skillfully, important as that is, but to reach 
the mind through the training of the hand as an 
instrument of acquisition and of expression. 

The term is used here also with a wider mean- 
ing than has attached to "manual." Under it is 
included all forms of school work with materials 
of any kind, kindergarten occupations, drawing, 
modeling, sewing, and cooking, work in wood and 
mental and school gardening. "Manumental 
training" means all school employments that typi- 
cally represent or reproduce the material construct- 
ive and productive activities of society. — Roark, 
Economy in Ed., p. 177. 

440. Many-sided interest. 

The aim of instruction, therefore, is not the pro- 
duction of a many-sided knowledge but of a 
many-sided interest. (Rein.) 

Explain this statement, and give reasons for accepting 
or rejecting it- 

Answer. This statement means that if we have 
a many-sided interest we have a full development 
of all the powers of the mind and many-sided 



212 The Science of Education 

knowledge will result. Life is a process of learn- 
ing- from beginning to end. We do not stop learn- 
ing when we leave school. If our powers for learn- 
ing have been cultivated interest will lead to the 
necessary knowledge. While if the aim has been 
for many-sided knowledge we may both lack the 
knowledge and the power for gaining it. If this 
meaning is accepted I accept the statement in the 
above. 

441. Mental discipline. 

Discipline is that training of a faculty which 
gives it power to accomplish more than it would 
have been able to accomplish without such dis- 
cipline. So mental discipline means a training of 
the mind, with a view to accomplishment as ex- 
pressed in the definition. 

442. Method-whole. 

A method-whole is an outline or plan of a cer- 
tain amount of subject-matter which can be con- 
sidered as a unit. The method-whole has been de- 
fined as an arrangement of matter that may be 
presented according to inductive-deductive meth- 
od. It has been explained as a process of passing 
from particular notion to general notion. A 
method-whole may embody all of the work pre- 
sented during a month., as the drainage of New 
York State. Then that larger method-whole may 
be sub-divided into other method-wholes, ac- 
cording to the work of a week or a day. Thus the 
definition of an adverb is suitable for a method- 
whole; but in that work there is another method- 
whole embodying the lesson on the verb. In short 






Questions and Typical Answers 213 

it is an arrangement of subject-matter to suit the 
natural capacities of the class. 

443. Reaction. — What is meant by reaction in 
psycliology ? 

Answer. Regular response to stimulation is re- 
action. Education as a process consists in furnish- 
ing proper stimulation and in directing the re- 
sponses. 

Sensuous impressions are not properly educa- 
tive if they fail to beget a correlative motor ac- 
tivity. The physiological process is this: (1). im- 
pulse from external stimulus is transmitted 
through sense organ to nerve centre; (2) the 
translation in the central process; (3) the changed 
impulse is transmitted to the motor organ. "Every 
idea tends to realize itself in action." In teaching 
it is necessary, therefore, to see that there is a 
reaction ; that the impression receive its compli- 
mentary expression through verbal reproduction, 
written reproduction or material reproduction as 
exemplified in the various forms of manual train- 
ing. 

444. Self-realization explained. 
Self-realization may be defined as consciousness 

or harmonious development. In order to arrive at 
this goal, we must emphasize the two great prin- 
ciples of education, apperception and self-activity. 
In dealing with apperception we shall be obliged 
to consider the individual or subject of appercep- 
tion ; and the subject-matter to be apperceived. 
The study of the individual will lead us to the con- 
sideration of many useful physiological laws, such 



214 The Science of Education 

as the doctrine of interest, the place of effort, the 
necessity of proceeding from the particular to the 
general, the culture epoch, and we shall thus work 
in harmony with the nature of the mind. The 
consideration of the subject-matter of instruction 
will help us to avoid one-sidedness. In order to 
attain true development all the powers of the 
mind must be exercised. We must, therefore, pro- 
vide a curriculum rich in scientific, literary, aes- 
theic, institutional and religious instruction. 

But we must never forget that these provisions 
will all be of no avail unless we secure the self- 
activity of the subject of our education. We can 
lead a horse to water, but we cannot make him 
drink, however good our intention, however fine 
the water, if he have no thirst. The interest of the 
pupil must be aroused in order to realize that 
happy relation between teacher and pupil, in which 
the activity of both is directed toward the same 
end. 

445. Sensation. 

A sensation is a simple mental state resulting 
from a physical stimulus. While at work this aft- 
ernoon, I became conscious of a noise outside. I 
paid no attention to it until some one inquired if 
we kept pigeons. We found later that some child- 
ren were drawing a box along the sidewalk at 
some distance from the house. The first state oi 
mind in which a noise was heard but its nature or 
cause unknown, was sensation. 

446. Socialization. 



Questions and Typical Answers 215 

"The immediate aim of the school should be ex- 
pressed as socialization." 

Interpret and apply this expression of aim. 

Answer. The socialization of the individual re- 
quires, in addition to the maximum development 
of the physical and mental powers, the highest 
possible development of social good will, social 
intelligence and social habits. The development 
of social good will and social intelligence implies 
a curriculum consciously adapted to that purpose. 
The approach toward an ideal curriculum involves 
an increasing demand upon the material of the 
social sciences. As to the formation of social 
habits, it implies the organization of the school so 
as to provide the greatest possible number of op- 
portunities for social action. — Basic Ideas of a 
Scientific Pedagogy by J. W. Howerth, Ph.D., of 
Chicago University, in Education,, November, 1902, 

P- 137- 

447. Social stimulus.-^— Explain meaning and ap- 
plication of social stimulus. 

Persons or ideas are called sociable if they are 
in harmony. Sociable means agreeable. Transfer 
the idea of a sociable company of workers to the 
school, and there apply the thought of (a) good 
will, (b) mutual agreement, (c) working. There 
is a stimulus under such conditions. It does not 
come wholly from the teacher, nor from any one 
pupil ; each pupil is contributing something. The 
stimulus coming from the members of a society 
or group or society is social stimulus. The social 
stimulus is a good working spirit in a school; it is 



Ji6 The Science of EbuCAfiotf 

good public opinion among the pupils; it is com- 
munity interest rather than selfish individual in- 
terest. 

448. Suggestion. — Define and illustrate suggestion 
as used in education. 

Suggestion is the tendency of consciousness to 
believe in and act on any given idea. — Home, Prin- 
ciples of Ed., 284. 

Suggestion is useful with pupils in all cases 
where the act does not demand the time and the 
power of personal reflection by the pupil. The pu- 
pil may be thinking well up to a certain point, but 
there he hesitates. A word, a sentence, a look 
or a gesture from the teacher may be enough to 
help him continue the train of thought. Thus in 
grammar, a pupil may have completed all the 
analysis and parsing excepting one word in a sen- 
tence. He has said that word is an attribute com- 
plement but he fails to decide the part of speech. 
The teacher asks what parts of speech may be 
used as an attribute complement; the pupil names 
the three and then selects the right one. 

The teacher's glance at a boy's shoes may be sug- 
gestion enough for next morning; pointing to his 
own head may suggest the use of comb and brush ; 
the teacher's appearance is a powerful suggestion; 
the teacher's penmanship, blackboard work, con- 
versation, personality,— all work strongly by sug- 
gestion. This shows the relation between sugges- 
tion and imitation, law of association, etc. 

449. Syllogism.— The syllogism is a form of de- 



Questions and Typical Answers 217 

ductive reasoning in which a conclusion is drawn 
from two known premises. 

Major premise. Human beings are rational. 

Minor premise. You are a human being. 

Conclusion. Therefore you are rational. 

450. "Things before words." 

"Things before words" is a concise way of 
expressing the aim of realism. In the sixteenth 
century there was a movement against Latin and 
Greek and in favor of French and German, geogra- 
phy, science and other real things. It was argued 
that the study of Latin and Greek was largely 
a matter of memorizing forms. The aim of the 
realists, therefore, was to put pupils into touch 
with their environment. Another meaning of this 
expression is seen in the inductive method. It is a 
process of learning by experiment instead of by 
reading or listening. Pupils handle natural things 
and use their own self-activity ; they get a knowl- 
edge of the real things, their properties, their uses, 
etc., before the principle or rule is put into words. 

451. Visualization. 

Visualization is mental imaging as a means of 
reproducing visual experiences. The earlier stages 
in the process consist of presenting objects for 
study; directing attention to what is desired, and 
otherwise training the power of observation; re- 
moving objects and then drilling in the formation 
of images. A second phase in the process is ob- 
jective, i. e., illustrative, presentation of lessons. 
This means the use of objects for illustration rather 
than for showing the characteristics of the objects 



218 The Science of Education 

themselves. The third contribution to the process 
includes all other graphic methods, such as draw- 
ings, writings, charts, maps, pictures, etc. 

One practical illustration of training in visualiza- 
tion is the practice of teaching memory selections, 
declensions, classifications, or other matter, from 
written forms upon the blackboard. This plan in- 
vites comfortable posture of pupils and teacher; 
class attention, interest, and concentrated effort; 
social feeling and consequent social stimulus; the 
application of the law of contiguity; and, as a re- 
sult, commendable self-activitv and desirable hab- 
its of study. 

452. Culture, instruction, induction, culture 
epoch theory, humanism, scholasticism. — Explain 
the meaning of each of the following terms: culture, in- 
struction, induction, "culture epoch theory," humanism, 
scholasticism. 

Answer. For definition of culture, see 
Epitome, page 2. A satisfactory explanation is 
quoted from the Dictionary of Philosophy: "Culture 
refers to the comprehensive changes in individual 
and social life, due to the continued and systematic 
influences of mental improvement and refinement. 
Considered from a strictly sociological point of 
view, it is called civilization, but anthropologists 
make culture the broader term. In the individual 
it is Education. 

"Whatever affects the intellectual status of man, 
whether directly or indirectly, may be said to be an 
element in culture. Arts and sciences, language 
and literature, education and government, social 






Questions and Typical Answers 219 

customs, ethics and religion, contribute directly to 
the culture of a people ; but practical industries, 
means of transportation and communication, and 
the physical comforts of life exercise, particularly 
in modern times, no less profound, though more in- 
direct, an influence upon the totality of human cul- 
ture." 

2. Instruction. See Chapter X. For another 
answer, take the next two paragraphs from Dic- 
tionary of Philosophy: 

"Instruction is the teaching act wherebv the pu- 
pil is informed and also trained and stimulated to 
acquire knowledge and mental power. 

"It concerns itself chiefly with three things: the 
materials, the course, and the methods of instruc- 
tion." 

3. Induction. See Methods in Education, p. 91. 

4. Culture epoch theory. See Section 99. 

5. Humanism was an educational movement 
which sought to secure the refining influences from 
the subject-matter. Classical Latin and classical 
Greek were used as the principal sources. The 
derivation of the word humanism suggests its 
meaning, namely, to humanize, civilize, give cul- 
ture. 

6. Scholasticism was an educational movement 
to reconcile philosophy and Christian doctrines. It 
existed from the ninth to the fifteenth centuries, 
reaching its climax in the eleventh and twelfth. 
Abelard, a Benedictine, was the greatest teacher; 
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), a Dominican, known 
as the Angelic Doctor, was the greatest writer; 



220 The Science of Education 

Duns Scotus (1265-1308), a Franciscan, was an- 
other noted writer. The schoolmen used the lecture 
method, interpreting and commenting upon the 
subject matter; and also the syllogism which is a 
form of deductive reasoning in which a conclusion 
is drawn from two known premises. 

453. Motive, instinct, intuition, breaking the 
will, suggestion. — Explain and illustrate the following 
terms: Motive, instinct, inhibition, "breaking the will," 
suggestion (as used in psychology). 

1. Motive is any conscious element considered 
as entering into the determination of a volition. — 
Dictionary of Philosophy. 

2. Instinct. See chapter VII. 

3. Inhibition is interference with the normal 
result of a nervous excitement by an opposing 
force. 

It differs from paralysis, in case of which the ner- 
vous action is prevented, while in case of inhibition 
it is overcome, diverted, or neutralized. The nor- 
mal effect of a higher upon a lower center of a 
series is the partial inhibition of the lower. Re- 
flexes may be inhibited voluntarily or by the strong 
stimulation of sensory nerves up to a certain point. 

Physiologically, inhibition is a necessary condi- 
tion in preserving the balance and tone of bodily 
function. The ganglion cells of the heart, for ex- 
ample, are constantly inhibited by the vagus nerve, 
and similar control is exercised over all other vital 
processes. As James says, "we should all be cata- 
leptics and never stop a muscular contraction once 
begun, were it not that other processes simultane- 



Questions and Typical Answers 221 

ously going on inhibit the contraction. Inhibition 
is therefore not an occasional accident ; it is an 
essential and unremitting element in our cerebral 
life." The exact nature of the process remains 
obscure. — Dictionary of Philosophy. 

4. "Breaking the will" means forcing the child 
to do what the parent or the teacher wishes, irre- 
spective of the wishes of the child. See 469 for 
quotation on balky will. In that connection James 
says: Such children are usually treated as sinful, 
and are punished; or else the teacher puts his or her 
will against the child's will, considering that the lat- 
ter must be "broken." "Break your child's will, in 
order that it may not perish," wrote John Wesley. 
"Break it as soon as it can speak plainly — or even 
before it can speak at all. It should be forced to 
do as it is told, even if you have to whip it ten times 
running. Break its will, in order that its soul may 
live." Such will-breaking is always a scene with a 
great deal of nervous wear and tear on both sides, 
a bad state of feeling left behind it, and the victory 
not always with the would-be will-breaker. — Talks 
to TeacJicrs, p. 182. 

5. Suggestion includes the instigating factors or 
phenomena in the social environment which leads' 
to the adoption, by a person, of a thought, a feeling, 
or a volition, either originally or for the time being 
absent from his consciousness. — Geo. B. Germann, 
Teachers' Monographs, April, 1901, p. 52. 

Suggestion is the tendency of consciousness to 
believe in and act on any given idea. — Home, Prin- 
ciples of Education, 284. 



222 The Science of Education 

Suggestion is useful with pupils in all cases where 
the act does not demand the time and the power 
of personal reflection by the pupil. 

An indirect suggestion is that which furnishes a 
motive for the pupil's act without commanding the 
problems of the thing. A positive suggestion se- 
cures the right act in the right way, while a nega- 
tive suggestion amounts to prohibition. Forbid 
the evil as little as possible; fill consciousness with 
the good as much as possible. 

Dr. Quackenbos has treated deficient pupils by 
post-hypnotic suggestions, but such methods can- 
not be generally commended. Such a method has 
been used for the purpose of building up the nerv- 
ous system enough to promote self-control in 
those cases where self-control is really desired. 
Only a deficient person is a subject for hypnotic 
treatment by suggestion. In the valid use of sug- 
gestion with normal persons the line should be 
drawn exactly at that point where the individuality 
of the person is no longer his own but has become 
anothers. — Home,, Principles of Education, p. 290. 

For further study, see James, Principles of Psy- 
chology, Chapter XXVII. Stout, Manual of Psy- 
chology, 269 to 275. Stratton, Experimental 
Psychology and Culture,, Chapter XI. Dill 
Psychology of Advertising, page 4. Mason, 
Hypnotism and Suggestion, Chapter IV supra. 

Priciples Applied 

454. Attention. — Define, discuss and illustrate at- 
tention. 



Questions and Typical Answers 223 

(a) Attention is concentrated consciousness. 
Hume says attention is consciousness occupying 
itself with an object. In consciousness we are aware 
of many thoughts and objects, but in attention all 
the powers of the mind are directed to one thing 
or object. In the best forms of attention an object 
or sound may be directly presented to the senses 
and yet I am unaware of the fact. We give best 
attention when there are no physical or psychical 
obstacles. For instance, I am very tired, bodily 
tired. I go upon a street car. Usually I attend to 
things going on around me. Now, I give no atten- 
tion to them. I am too conscious of my weariness. 
This weariness is a physical obstacle which inhibits 
attention to the things around me. 

I pick up a book in Russian. I open it and I try 
to interpret it. I fail. I lose interest and find my- 
self unable to conscentrate my mind upon the book. 
It is too difficult for my mind. I have no apper- 
ceiving- group to bring the power upon an object. 
Therefore, I cannot give attention because this is 
a psychical obstacle. 

Attention is of two kinds, voluntary and involun- 
tary. I am attending a course of lectures. There 
are no physical obstacles in the way of my attend- 
ing, that is, I am not tired. The room is warm 
enough, the air is good, and all other physical en- 
vironments are satisfactory. There are no psychi- 
cal obstacles. The speaker's topic may be new to 
me, but it is not beyond my comprehension. The 
speaker begins and I listen and follow the trend of 
his thought. I am giving voluntary attention. 



224 The Science of Education 

The speaker occupies a position on a small stage. 
To the left is a door partly open. About the mid- 
dle of the lecture a small dog peers in the doorway 
and runs across the stage to someone he knows in 
the room. By an involuntary act my mind leaves 
the trend of the lecturer's thought for a few min- 
utes and pays attention to the dog. This is invol- 
untary attention. So involuntary attention is con- 
sciousness, not controlled by the will, occupying 
itself with an object. Voluntary attention is con- 
sciousness controlled by the will, occupying itself 
with an object. 

(b) A voluntary action is an action performed 
as the result of a volition on the part of the doer. 
It implies that the doer knew what he was doing 
and he did it of his own free will. It also implies 
that the action was performed as the result of the 
interpretation of vibrations by the brain rather than 
the result of an interpretation in a nerve center 
located outside of the brain in the spinal column. 

Illustration. I am working at my desk. The win- 
dow is open. The wind blows a sheet of paper 
against my hand. I remove the paper without be- 
ing conscious of my action and without taking my 
thought from the work in which I am engaged. 
This is an involuntary action. A few minutes later, 
during the same kind of study, I hear of a friend's 
illness. I stop my work and immediately prepare 
to go to see that friend. I am conscious of what I 
am doing, but I do it of my own will. This action 
is voluntary action. 

455. Attention,— What is attention ? Is the distinc- 



Questions and Typical Answers 225 

tion between voluntary and reflex attention ultimate? 
Discuss. What is meant by expectant attention? Ex- 
emplify some of its effects and give what you consider 
to be their psychological explanation. 

Answer. Attention is focussed consciousness. 
A single object or idea holds the central point in 
consciousness, other objects and ideas making up 
the "fringe of consciousness." The effort required 
in answering this question pushes aside all other 
contending elements. Attention is not a mental 
process but a condition necessary to get the best 
mental results. It implies adjustment of sense or- 
gan, of one's whole physical and mental make-up. 
In thinking out a problem, there must be a certain 
facial expression, a posture of body, a tension of 
nerve and muscle, etc., if the end is to be attained. 

Reflex or involuntary attention precedes voluntary 
attention in the individual's life-time. In the lower 
forms of animal life and in primitive man every act 
of attention was accompanied by movement, e. g., 
every act of attention was reflex. While no appar- 
ent movement results in a case of voluntary atten- 
tion, there is movement, nevertheless, which mani- 
fests itself in the changed bodily process. The 
simplest thought affects the flow of blood. So that 
ultimately, voluntary and reflex attention are the 
same. As reflex, automatic, instructive, random, 
impulsive and sensory movements must precede 
voluntary movements, so reflex acts of attention 
must precede voluntary acts of attention. 

In expectant attention there is the mental prepara- 
tion, the adjustment of the sense organ as well as 



226 The Science of Education 

the adjustment of the entire nervous system, to re- 
ceive the stimulus. This state makes the reception 
of stimuli more rapid, more impressive and more 
accurate. In the class room, expectant attention 
may be aroused by a look, a pause, a question, by 
an experiment, a suggestion, etc. Expectant atten- 
tion places the emphasis on the motor expression 
resulting from stimuli rather than the reception 
of stimuli. This sometimes leads to hallucinations, 
to too great susceptibility to suggestion, and to the 
giving of wrong reports. Both the advantages and 
disadvantages of expectant attention should be at- 
tributed to the motor expression of sensory im- 
pressions. 

456. Interest and activity. — Show the relation of 
interest to activity in education. 

Answer. The doctrine that the interest nat- 
urally attaching to the ends for which pupils should 
be awakened in the means (i. e. the studies) used 
for reaching them ; and, conversely, that permanent 
interest in the ends should be fostered through the 
means. 

When interest attaches to the end, but not to the 
means for reaching it, we have drudgery, as in the 
case of a workman who thinks only of the dollar, 
taking no pride or interest in the labor that earns 
it; on the other hand, when there is interest in the 
means but none in the end, we have play, not 
work. Interest is then only amusement. When, 
however, there is interest in the end to be attained 
by activity, and also in the means for reaching the 
end, we have the type of work desirable, in educa- 



Questions and Typical Answers 227 

tion. A direct interest, therefore, should be 
aroused in the studies as the means of reaching 
the ends of education; this interest when thor- 
oughly aroused has a reflex influence in developing 
true ideals of life and conduct. The mental attitude 
of the sculptor is the ideal one for the pupil, since 
the interest he feels in the statue as an end attaches 
to every stage of its creation. When this direct in- 
terest is moral as well as intellectual and aesthetic, 
then instruction becomes truly educative. — DeGar- 
mo in Dictionary of Philosophy. 

457. Interest: native to acquired; importance. — 
Illustrate the fact that acquired interest grows out of 
instinctive or native interest. (18) 

(b) Show the importance of interest in mental 
life. (8) 

Answer, (a) To the average man a specimen 
belonging to the order of Coleoptera — or for that 
matter to any other order of insects — and so minute 
as to be incapable of examination by the naked eye, 
could not be called an object of more than passing 
interest. Yet a friend of mine, a young naturalist 
of no mean attainment, could study that little insect 
for hours and find it a positive pleasure. This young 
entomologist, whom I have known from boyhood, 
is to me a living illustration of the passing of native 
into acquired interests, and of the importance of in- 
terest in mental life. 

Born and reared on a large farm, he knew no 
other books and teachers than the domestic animals 
and fowls,, the fields, the woods, and the brooks, 
life, motion, sound and color, the things natively 



228 The Science of Education 

interesting to children. While yet a mere boy, the 
fishpole and the gun furnished him with the health- 
iest of activities, trained eye and ear, and schooled 
him in natural cunning and shrewdness better than 
a thousand stories of Jason or Achilles. Next came 
the collecting impulse. He acquired a practical 
knowledge of taxidermy, and the birds of the field 
and the forest fell to his gun, not out of wanton 
cruelty, but for a real purpose — to form his collec- 
tion. Already his native interests were passing into 
a higher stage. It was now not alone the flight, 
color or striking appearance of the bird that at- 
tracted him; it was also knowledge about the bird 
which was being unconsciously added to its natur- 
ally interesting features. 

When he moved into town to get a high school 
education, he not only possessed a collection of 
finely prepared bird-skins, as well as one of insects 
of all kinds the locality afforded, but he had mas- 
tered the rudiments of scientific classification, and 
no thanks to teachers or tedious lessons. Through 
these four years of high school training, the algebra 
and Latin grammar had their place, of course ; but 
he still ranged the country with shot-gun and in- 
sect-net, and his collections grew in size as well as 
in skill of preparation and arrangement. 

Though he had not especially distinguished him- 
self in text-book knowledge during his preparatory 
course,, when he entered college there was a sudden 
ripening of the funds of long years of preparation — 
a marked man in Natural History from the day of 
his entrance; and before graduation he was an as- 



Questions and Typical Answers 229 

sistant in his special department. In every subject 
he touched, he attained distinction, and when he 
left the university to obtain a professorship else- 
where, he had made one of the best records in gen- 
eral scholarship ever attained in that institution. 
And what was the secret? There had been no 
forcing, no compulsion, no rebellion against dry 
lessons and dull teachers. He had builded the whole 
super-structure of his education on the simple na- 
tive interest of his boyhood activities, without a 
struggle and almost without effort. Observation, 
discrimination and judgment — the essentials of 
scholarship — had been trained not in the hothouse 
of the school, but in the woods and fields and under 
the open sky. This is an education "according to 
nature." 

(b) The foregoing sketch shows better than any 
long expositions the importance of interest for 
mental life. It is the link between the mind and 
object or idea. It is the basis of involuntary atten- 
tion, from which all voluntary attention must pro- 
ceed. It is the gate to apperception, through which 
the new idea must pass before it can be introduced 
to old and related ideas. It is the lubricant which 
keeps the machinery of education running smoothly 
without friction or squeaking. It is the arch- 
enemy to dullness and stupidity on the part of 
both teacher and pupil ; to disorder by the latter 
and crankiness by the former. It is the pillar that 
supports the temple of education. It is the death 
of mediocrity and the key to scholarship. 

458. Interest and literature. — Define interest in 



230 The Science of Education 

the educational sense. How may interest in literature, 
or in history, or in botany, be cultivated and made per- 
manent? 

Answer. Interest, in the educational sense, im- 
plies a liking for the different subjects in the school 
curriculum. Upon the awakening- of interest de- 
pend not only the results a pupil reaches in a sub- 
ject, the attitude toward the teacher and the school, 
but also the probability that he will continue any of 
these studies when he passes out of school. Again, 
the interest pupils have in school work determines, 
to a large extent, the number of years they are 
willing to spend in school. Interest, to a large ex- 
tent, is a safe index by which the quality of teaching 
may be judged. Where interest pervades the work 
of the school, discipline is secondary. But interest 
is not the only end to be kept in view. Applica- 
tion, review and drill, also, have their place. 

To create an interest in literature the pupil must 
first be impressed by the enthusiasm of the teacher. 
Such enthusiasm affects all the members of the 
class. The selections the teacher reads to this pu- 
pils and the selections read in class must be adapted 
to the age and developments of the pupils in the 
class. Selections they can supplement and inter- 
pret by their own experience arouse interest Selec- 
tions that offer ample opportunities for the exer- 
cise of the imagination delight pupils. Selections 
that are units of their kind appeal to children. At 
times, the teacher should read just far enough to 
arouse the interest of pupils to a high degree. Let 
them look up and complete the reading of the se- 



Questions and Typical Answers 231 

lection. The teacher should interest pupils in 
library books by selecting, now and then, books 
which she knows will appeal to particular individu- 
als. In this way the love of literature is made per- 
manent. 

459. Apperception. — (a) Define apperception, (b) 
State and illustrate a principle regarding its application 
in the teaching of your specialty. 

Answer. Applied to Latin, (a) Apperception 
is the process by which the mind assimilates new 
ideas to its fund of related ideas. 

(b) The idea to be apperceived must not be new 
or strange; or, to put it in other words, the mind 
must be prepared to receive the new idea, by having 
at hand an apperceptive mass of related ideas ready 
to seize upon the first one. For instance, the sub- 
ject of noun-declension strikes many a beginner in 
Latin as something entirely new and strange. 
When he is first directed to learn the paradigm 
of the first declension, and in perhaps the very next 
section of his book to translate case-forms of other 
nouns, he often feels that he is trying to solve a 
Chinese puzzle. 

Now the duty of the teacher is clear. In a very 
few words he can call up before the mind of the 
pupil the fact of declension in English grammar, 
surviving in the pronoun, and he can impress on 
them the fact that the change in ending accom- 
panies, or rather indicates, a change in relation. 
Then passing to the noun, the teacher should point 
out the possessive case still surviving and may tell 
the class that the English language once had other 



232 The Science of Education 

cases but has lost them, and now indicates the 
meaning- of the noun largely by its position in the 
sentence. He can show them how Latin, possess- 
ing a complete case system, admits of a freer order 
and indicates the relation of the noun by the case- 
ending. 

Further, if the book does not give with the Latin 
paradigms and meanings a parallel table of English 
cases, — e. g., Genitive linguae, (a) (the) language's 
or of (a) (the) language, English possessive or ob- 
jective with "of," let the teacher elicit from the pu- 
pils such a table, by their giving the English cases 
corresponding to the several translations. This 
table of English cases should be learned as thor- 
oughly as the paradigm and translations, all this 
preparation being given the class in the recitation 
before they are set to work learning their para- 
digm. Besides this, the teacher should show the 
class how to decline any other first declension noun 
by finding its base, adding the same table of end- 
ings, and using the same form for translating. 
Again, before the pupil is plunged into an exercise 
of translating case forms of various nouns, he 
should be shown that he should continue first the 
number, then the case of the noun. When all this 
preparation has been given, the pupil is ready to 
master the declension and translate the exercises, 
feeling that there is just enough new to interest 
him and stimulate his effort. 

460. Apperception, failure in. — (a) State three 
causes of failure to apperceive- (b) Hoiv or why does 
the correlation of studies aid apperception? 



Questions and Typical Answers 233 

Answer. Since apperception is "the process of 
unifying and making 'meaningful' the data fur- 
nished by sensation," it involves three factors. 
These are: (1) perfect sense-organs to receive the 
stimuli which occasion sensations; (2) attention, 
the condition through which the sense-organs are 
adjusted to suit the stimulus to the best advantage; 
(3) the number of related ideas present in the 
mind to interpret the new experience. If any one 
of these elements is defective or wanting alto- 
gether, the apperceptive process is weakened. 
Suppose that one's eye-sight is defective, it is dif- 
ficult to interpret visual stimuli. When the child 
does not pay attention to the lesson, he neither 
sees nor hears what's going on. If you never stud- 
ied algebra, you can't interpret algebraic symbols. 

In the correlation of studies the teacher does not 
make use of material taken from two or more 
studies in order to teach more or less of all of them 
but he uses the material the child has learned in 
another subject if the use of that material serves 
best to give clearness to the lesson taught. Thus, 
one teaches the geographical position of two ar- 
mies if, by doing so, the history lesson can be made 
clearer by doing so. In this way correlation be- 
comes an indispensable aid to the process of apper- 
ception. 

461. Apperception and memory. — Tell, with 
reasons, what memory has to do with apperception, and 
ivhat apperception has to do with memory. 

Answer. To understand clearly the relation ex- 
isting between memory and apperception it is 



234 The Science of Education 

necessary to define our terms. In memory acts 
we recall the ideas of former experiences and rec- 
ognize them as having been in our consciousness 
before, as when a person remembers an impressive 
conversation he had with another person. In ap- 
perception acts the mind interprets new experiences 
in the knowledge of old related ideas. To the illiter- 
ate the written sentence, "Dare to be true," means 
nothing. To the child its meaning is very hazy. 
To the mature individual who realizes its many- 
sided significance it means much. There may be 
memory without having any apperception as is the 
case where a former experience is exactly recalled 
in detail. If, however, a new element appears in 
the reproduction we have apperception. But ap- 
perception means primarily that the mind contrib- 
utes as much of old experiences as it can to explain 
the new. To make this possible old experiences 
must be remembered, i. e., without memory there 
could be no apperception, no such mental contri- 
bution. Apperception is, therefore, a law of mem- 
ory. Without apperception there could be no 
percepts of anything since every percept is made 
up of the two elements, sensation and appercep- 
tion. If there were no percepts there could be no 
memory of any. Suppose that you don't know a 
word of Greek, a Greek sentence is given you for 
translation. Why can't you translate it ? Why 
can't you remember it? Apperception is wanting. 
There is no percept of it, in consequence. Hence, 
there can be no memory of it. 

462. Feeling and intellect. — (a) Trace the con- 



Questions and Typical Answers 235 

nection between feeling and intellect; between feeling 
and will or action. State educational corollaries and il- 
lustrate their application. 

Answer. Feelings are bodily states. Intellect is 
purely a mental process or a certain number of men- 
tal processes. If the bodily manifestations of feel- 
ing, such as the brightness of the eyes, the faster 
circulation of the blood, deep inhalations and ex- 
halations of breath, the beaming countenance, are 
suppressed, feeling disappears. Feeling, or inter- 
est, in a thing determines to a large extent what 
we shall know about it. The condition and cir- 
cumstances of a very deserving person are brought 
to your attention. Now, you know his needs. You 
feel sympathy for him. If your act is completed 
you take steps to help him. The latter is an exer- 
cise of will. 

Corollaries to be drawn from these facts are: (1) 
Inform the mind as to what is right and proper; 
(2) Evoke the feelings toward worthy ends; (3) 
Make many occasions for pupils to exercise their 
feelings in attaining these ends. 

Let us suppose that the expression, "pleasurable 
excitement." is not due to the gratification of a 
purely selfish motive. Spencer evidently means 
that the activity the individual engages in becomes 
a means through which the individual expresses his 
own spontaneous activity. The solving of prob- 
lems in arithmetic is as eagerly done as the playing 
of a favorite game. If this be true the individual 
will get the greatest amount of culture out of it. 
463. Principles underlying habits.— Name tzvo 



236 The Science of Education 

principles underlying the formation of habits. Illustrate 
the application of each of these principles. 

Two principles underlying the formation of hab- 
its are plasticity and regularity of repetition. Habit 
is a fixed tendency to act, feel, or think in a certain 
way under certain conditions. In order to form 
a fixed tendency, we must give this fixed tendency 
exercise by repeating again and again and yet 
again that thought, act or feeling we wish to be- 
come a fixed tendency. I wish to wean children 
from the incorrect pen holding habit to the cor- 
rect. My first lesson teaches the children how to 
hold pen. My second how to hold pen and use pen 
in that position. Each following lesson it is my 
duty to see that child always holds pen correctly. 
If this is done, in time there will be a fixed tendency, 
to hold the pen correctly. If my lessons are a week 
apart I find the hand forgets its tendency more 
readily than if I had my lessons every day. I find 
five minutes each day devoted to writing forms 
better writers than twenty-five minutes a week in 
one lesson devoted to subject. Then I conclude it 
is better to have frequent regular short intervals 
than regular long intervals. 

464. Actions: reflex, instinctive, voluntary. — 
Distinguish reflex, automatic, instinctive and voluntary 
actions. Under what conditions do voluntary acts tend 
to become relatively unconscious? Can this fact be ex- 
plained by any general laws of nervous action? 

Answer. Reflex actions are those actions which, 
do not require consciousness for their performance. 
They are performed by the spinal cord and the 



Questions and Typical Answers 237 

lower centers of the brain. As examples, may be 
mentioned the winking of the eyelids, the dilation 
of the pupil, the clutching and the sucking reflexes, 
etc. In physiological terms, the simple reflex is 
the action of one or more sensory neurones upon 
one or more motor neurones in the lower centers 
of the central nervous system. 

Automatic actions are to be distinguished from 
reflex actions on account of their more complex na- 
ture. They do not require consciousness but re- 
quire the connections of many more sensory and 
motor neurones. Besides, some automatic actions 

k involve the sympathetic nervous system in addition 
to the lower centers of the central nervous system. 
Among automatic actions may be mentioned the 
heart-beat, movements of the digestive organs, 
movements required in breathing. Some psychol- 
ogists call those actions automatic which no longer 
require conscious effort to be performed. The for- 
mer definition is generally accepted, however. 

Instinctive acts are the results of a pre-deter- 
mined setting of the entire nervous system to reach 
in a certain way. These acts are the results of 
racial experiences. Like reflexes they are purposive. 
They help to protect the life of the individual, in cer- 
tain instances. For example, one finds himself in 
a very dangerous physical position, as in the way of 
a train. There is no time for decision. Instinct 
helps us to get out of the way, we wonder how. In- 
stinctive acts are to be distinguished from reflexes 
and automatic actions in that their occurrence is 
known to consciousness. 



238 The Science of Education 

Voluntary acts require consciousness before and 
after their occurrence. They require conscious ef- 
fort. They are based directly on the co-ordination 
of the movements which took place as results of re- 
flexes, automatic adjustments, instructive and imi- 
tative movements, random movements and move- 
ments due to sense stimulation. If these latter 
movements had never taken place one would have 
no memory of their occurrence and their repeti- 
tion would be impossible just as I can't remem- 
ber an experience that never took place. When 
voluntary acts have been repeated until the nerve- 
chain becomes well united and more easily stimu-» 
lated than any other, the execution of the move- 
ment begun is transferred from the conscious cere- 
bral region to a lower brain center. The move- 
ment begun remains seemingly unconscious unless 
the chain is interrupted by something very un- 
usual. As examples, piano playing and performing 
the routine of one's life may be mentioned. 

465. Action : reflex, impulsive, automatic, delib- 
erate. — Define and illustrate each. 

Reflex action is the process of changing an af- 
ferent nerve current into an efferent nerve cur- 
rent without the aid of the brain. 

Illustration. I put my finger on a warm object; 
the afferent nerve carries the message to the nerve 
center, where the efferent nerve receives the re- 
turn message to remove the finger. This action 
takes place without the aid of the brain and is thus 
called reflex action. 

Impulsive action is that in which the entrance of 



Questions and Typical Answers 239 

an idea into consciousness is immediately followed 
by the appropriate action. As an illustration, sup- 
pose I am hurrying- to the post office to mail a let- 
ter. While on the car I see a friend from a distant 
city. I run at once to greet him. This is impulsive 
action. 

Automatic action is habitual action. Any action 
becomes automatic as soon as it is carried on with- 
out any intervention of the will. An illustration of 
this is the finger action in playing a piano after a 
person has become accustomed to that kind of ac- 
tion. 

Deliberate action is that in which (1) action is 
suggested to the mind (2) the mind considers 
whether it will act or not, and (3) the will makes 
the decision. This is illustrated in the decision of 
many teachers who begin to consider the advisa- 
bility of teaching in New York City, think of the 
matter a year or two, and then decide for or 
against the action. This process is sometimes 
called deliberation. 

466. Active, mobile children. 

"Some children are more active, or mobile — more 
suggestible ; while others are more passive or re- 
ceptive, less suggestible. The impulsive, active 
children are always responsive, but always are in 
error in what they say and do ; they are quick to 
generalize, poor at making distinctions and they are 
characterized by fluidity of attention. The sensory 
or passive children are more troubled with physical 
inertia, more conteemplative, less active in learn- 



240 The Science of Education 

ing to act out new movements, less quick at tak- 
ing a hint, etc." (After Baldwin.) 

Comment; on this classification. Suggest zvays of 
dealing with each of these types. 

Answer. I do not agree that impulsive, active 
children are always in error in what they say and 
do, are quick to generalize, poor in making dis- 
tinctions and characterized by fluidity of attention. 
This designates some impulsive, active children, 
but not all. I have one in my school at present 
who could be so characterized. This one can nat- 
urally see just why I have had her repeat the work 
of last year. Last year she gained absolutely 
nothing. This year I hope to have her gain suffi- 
cient to be promoted in June.. With the second 
characterization of passive children I agree. I 
have had until just now such a boy in my school. 
He likewise is repeating last year's work. His 
physical inertia is so great that I could not hope 
to have him up to grade by June. He has there- 
fore been removed to a special school where in- 
dividual attention can be given in hope of bring- 
ing him to grade. 

467. Correlation. — What is correlation? 

Answer. — Correlation is the result of Herbart's 
education through instruction. It means arrange- 
ment of the program so that the work in one sub- 
ject may, as far as possible, throw light on the work 
the pupil is doing at the same time in another work; 
and (2) such a method of teaching as will cause 
the pupil to see the particular fact he is studying in 



Questions and Typical Answers 241 

relation to all that he knows. — Gordy, A Broader 
El. Ed., p. 194. 

468. Correlation, variety, induction, miscellane- 
ous or simultaneous questioning, concrete methods. 
— State {do not merely refer to) educational principles 
upon which each of the following methods or devices 
may be defended: — 

(a) Uniting in one lesson history and geography. 

(b) Having a lesson in arithmetic (grammar grade) 
followed by one in music or in reading. 

(c) Presenting or having the children present a num- 
ber of sentences, each containing a pronoun and its ante- 
cedent, before formulating the grammatical rule about 
the agreement of the pronoun with its antecedent- 
id) Teaching by giving questions to the class and re- 
quiring answers from one or more individuals desig- 
nated after each question is put. 

(e) Choosing the object rather than a picture of the 
object in a nature study lesson. 

Answer. — (a) The principle of correlation is 
founded upon the law of association of ideas and 
apperception; briefly stated, it is that quality of the 
human mind which makes it easier to keep a fact in 
a group of kindred related facts than to hold it as an 
isolated idea. Correlation usually refers to associa- 
tion between groups as, the Delaware is a river in 
N. J. (geography) ; Washington crossed the Dela- 
ware (history). To have both these facts at the 
same time helps the memory. 

(b) Voluntary attention develops out of involun- 
tary attention. In small children the capacity to 
attend to one subject is limited to a few moments. 



242 The Science of Education 

If pursued longer fatigue is experienced. Therefore 
variety in the program of studies is a psychological 
necessity. The principle is, therefore, variety. 

(c) The human mind is of such a nature that it is 
obliged to proceed from the "known to the related 
unknown." Principle: induction. 

(d) Clear localization in consciousness is the first 
great necessity of securing memory. If the ques- 
tion is put after the child's name is called, this locali- 
zation of attention is often missed. Instead of get- 
ting the question in mind, the child thinks, "Oh, I'm 
not the one this time." Simultaneous questions 
preferred. 

(e) The principle of "multiple sense impression" 
insists that an idea is best held in consciousness, 
when it is carried over as many roads as possible. 
To touch,, handle, taste, smell and see an object will 
be four times as useful to the memory of it as it 
would be to simply see it. Concrete methods re- 
quire the thing itself whenever possible. 

469. Will: James on balky will. 

"The teacher often is confronted in the school- 
room with an abnormal type of will, which we may 
call the balky will. Certain children, if they do nor 
succeed in doing a thing immediately, remain com- 
pletely inhibited in regard to it ; it becomes literally 
impossible for them to understand it if it be an in- 
tellectual problem, or to do it if it be an outward 
operation, as long as this particular inhibited con- 
dition lasts." — James. 

(a) Describe wrong ways of dealing with such cases, 
with their usual or natural results. 



Questions and Typical Answers 243 

(b) Describe a psychologically right way of dealing 
with such cases. Give reasons. 

(a) This quotation from James is found on page 
'1<j in Talks to Teachers. "Such children," he says, 
"are usually treated as sinful, and are punished; or 
else the teacher puts his or her will against the 
child's will, considering that the latter must be 
broken. Such will-breaking is always a scene at- 
tended with a great deal of nervous wear an 1 tear 
on both sides, a bad state of feeling left behind it, 
and the victory not always with the would-be will- 
breaker. 

(b) The answer is quoted from James. "When 
a situation of the kind is once fairly developed, and 
the child is all tense and excited inwardly, nineteen 
times out of twenty it is best for the teacher to ap- 
perceive the case as one of neural pathology rather 
than as one of moral culpability. So long as the 
inhibiting sense of impossibility remains in the 
child's mind, he will continue unable to get beyond 
the obstacle. The aim of the teacher should then 
be to make him simply forget. Drop the subject for 
the time, divert the mind to something else ; then, 
leading the pupil back by some circuitous line of 
association, spring it on him again before he has 
time to recognize it, and as likely as not he will go 
over it no-v without any difficulty." 

470. Will: method of training. — Outline a useful 
method of training the will. 

One means of training the will is that of allowing 
as much liberty as possible to the individual pupil, 
to throw him upon his own resource and respond- 



244 The Science of Education 

bility; giving him certain work to be performed 
within a specified time, leaving the exact time, 
place, and manner of doing the work to him. Allow 
him the freedom of the room, the building, the 
grounds, with the understanding that the privilege 
must be rightly used. The point is to get him in 
the habit of acting on his own initiative and to ex- 
ercise proper control over his actions; both im- 
portant functions of the will. 

Suggest to pupils various things that they might 
do to improve their village or to alleviate the dis- 
tress or add to the happiness of people less fortu- 
nate than themselves. Arouse their feelings to the 
point where they are ready to do something, then 
put the opportunity before them. 

Organize little clubs or societies for the accom- 
plishment of certain special ends, as the protection 
of the birds, the cultivation of a flower garden. 
Furnish all the needed instructions as to how to do 
and create the desire to do, but leave the doing 
to the children. 

Faculties 

471. Sensation : defined ; distinguished from per- 
ception. — Define sensation. Explain its relation to 
perception. Give a full account of its distinguishable 
characters. 

Answer. — A sensation is the simplest mental 
process resulting from bodily processes connected 
with definite bodily sense organs. The first stimu- 
lation of a special or organic sense organ, whose 
effect resulted in the first consciousness of the child, 
produced a pure sensation. As soon as the memory 






Questions and Typical Answers 245 

of former experiences aids in the interpretation of 
the effect of new stimuli, or new sensations, we 
have perception. Now, sensation is no longer pure 
as a mental content but the mental content is made 
up of sensation, the direct result of stimulation, and 
apperception, or the mind's contribution to the 
effect of the present stimulus. These two elements 
— the sensation element and the apperceptional ele- 
ment — together make up the percept. The mental 
process involved in arriving at the percept is known 
as perception. Every percept must include these 
two elements. So long as this is the case the mind 
gets, new mental material. The mental material re- 
mains static or decreases when no new sensations 
are experienced. Sensations have four attributes: 
quality, quantity, intensity, and duration. Their 
quality is determined by the sense-organ whose 
stimulation gives rise to them. The quality of smell, 
sensations differs from those of sound, sight, taste, 
pressure, etc. The quantity of sensation element 
depends on the amount of sense-organ surface stim- 
ulated. The intensity of sensations depends upon 
the manner in which the stimulus is applied, e. g., 
the plain sensation may be increased by an increase 
of physical pressure. The duration of sensation de- 
pends upon the length of time the stimulus is ap- 
plied; as, the prolonging of a musical tone. 

472. Imagination. — Define, classify, and apply. 

Answer. — Imagination is the power of thinking 
or calling into consciousness feelings of things, per- 
sons, qualities and conditions of all sorts not present 



246 The Science of Education 

to the senses. It is twofold in its nature, productive 
and reproductive. 

In its reproductive nature, it corresponds to the 
various senses. It is, for instance, possible to divide 
images into audile, visual, gustatory,, motor and 
tactile images. Some people are stronger along 
one line of image-making, some along other lines. 
The attempt has been made to classify people ac- 
cording to their type in this respect. The teacher 
there talks to the audiles, writes on the board for 
the visual, makes motions and enunciates promi- 
nently for the motors. As it cannot, however, be 
proved that the people who see images most clearly 
before their mind's eye necessarily make the best 
responses, and as all children possess these powers 
in some degree, such attempts seem questionable. 
Thinking is forever aided by getting images of 
things to be stored away in memory as clearly as 
possible because vividness is one of the factors in 
memory. 

In its productive power, imagination has resulted 
in the best achievements of the race. Imagination, 
in this direction, is the power to put parts of things, 
qualities, and conditions into new forms. We call 
this creative imagination. This functions largely 
in ethical thinking or idealization. Here we get a 
construction of all the qualities which appeal to us 
as standing for the highest good. 

The uses of the imagination may, therefore, be 
classed under two heads, (a) its memory uses (b) 
its creative uses. 

The abuses of the imagination may be thought 



Questions and Typical Answers 247 

of as (a) failure to get clear images or failure in 
visualization, making for weak memory; (b) over- 
emphasis of images rather than responses, benumb- 
ing to self-activity. 

The creative uses of the imagination may be 
thwarted by crushing out individuality, telling too 
much in history; talking too much in drawing; fail- 
ure to direct thought toward original thinking. 

473. Image : defined, applied. — What is a mental 
image? Describe two kinds of imagination- Shozv by 
illustrations from literature, geography and mathematics 
how the imagination may be trained in school. 

Answer. — A mental image is the memory of a 
revived percept. This morning you sat at your 
breakfast table. Now you picture to yourself the 
scene there. You see the other members of the 
family at the table. You see the arrangement and 
color of dishes. You know the courses in their 
order. You taste the deliciousness of the things 
you had to eat. You smell their fragrance. You 
can hear what was spoken while you sat there. 
You can feel how you felt as you sat there. One, 
several, or all of these elements may enter into 
your mental image. 

The mental products of imagination may be 
possible of realization or not. If they are, we have 
constructive imagination. If they are not, we have 
fancy or phantasy. In either case the elements 
combined are not new. They must have been ex- 
perienced. Imagine an electric railway built from 
New York to Chicago. The elements are not new. 
The product is possible of realization. Hence this 



248 The Science of Education 

is an instance of constructive imagination. Imagine 
an electric railway built to the moon. The elements 
are old. The product is not possible of realization; 
phantasy. The inventor works out a product which 
will be useful to mankind in a material way. The 
poet writes of things beautiful and good. Both use 
constructive imagination.. Both kinds of construct- 
ive imagination are possible of realization. Both 
benefit mankind. 

In literature the imagination is trained if the 
writer does not do the work for the reader by de- 
scribing every detail of the scene. Swift's Gulliver's 
Travels is a good example. 

In geography the student, by means of the im- 
agination, can comprehend the meaning of a moun- 
tain if he knows what a hill is. He can imagine an 
ocean if he knows what a bay is or what a lake is. 

In mathematics he can solve his problems to bet- 
ter advantage if he can project the theorem so that 
is dealing with real angles, or if he thinks he is 
actually selling in the market place. 

474. Imitation in children. — Discuss the imitative- 
ness of children of four to six years of age, in its rela- 
tion to their development. 

Answer. — Of all animals, the man animal is the 
most imitative. The first acts which the child of 
the kindergarten age does are those due to instinct. 
These are imitations of the acts of his ancestors. 
Among them are the desire for play, for freedom, 
for examining strange things, etc. Through the 
gratification of these desires he develops physically 
and gains knowledge of his environment. He imi- 



Questions and Typical Answers 249 

tates those with whom he is thrown in contact con- 
sciously and unconsciously. The language he hears 
becomes his language the countenance he sees mod- 
ifies his countenance. Manner of walking, sitting, 
standing, etc., — all become a part of his acquired 
experience. All of these acts are steps in the grad- 
ual adjustment to environment. The models he 
imitates serve either as a check to his development 
or as an aid to it. Instructive imitations, imitations 
of the simple and the complex acts of others, help 
to give physical and mental determination to the 
child's development. A further recognition of this 
fact implies that the power of initiation is continu- 
ously operative until the individual has reached his 
complete development. Not only this, but one 
generation advances beyond that of its predecessor 
by imitating its successors and shunning its failures. 
See Home, Philosophy of Ed., pp. 175-187. 

475. Impression and recollection. — Name four of 
the most important conditions which tend to fix an 
idea in the mind and to render it easy of recollection. 
(b) Explain the terms used in answering (a), (c) Illus- 
trate the use of one of these conditions in teaching. 

Answer. — (a) Impressions are made on the cen- 
tral nervous system through the various sense- 
organs. The impressions which one receives 
through handling an apple, seeing it, tasting it, 
smelling it, hearing it fall,, taken together constitute 
the percept of apple. The memory of this percept 
is the idea. To make this idea most permanent it 
is necessary (1) that the same impressions should 
be often repeated, (2) that they should be recent, 



250 The Science of Education 

(3) that they should be received with the best at- 
tention, (4) that they should be received through 
the greatest possible number of sense-organs, i. e., 
they should be received with the greatest possible 
number of associations, (b) Adhering to our ex- 
ample, this means that to remember apple, the in- 
dividual must (1) taste, smell, handle, hear and see 
it often, (2) that he must recently have done so, 
(3) that not one or two but all sense-organs possi- 
ble be involved,, (4) that the taste, smell, sound, 
sight, feeling, of the apple be attended to when re- 
ceived, (c) in teaching the causes of the French and 
Indian wars this would mean that the lesson must 
have been taught recently, that teacher and pupils 
gave it their undivided attention, that the lesson has 
been often reviewed, that the lesson was taught in 
its widest historical and geographical relation. The 
preceding attitude of the French and English to- 
ward one another, the purpose of their settlements, 
the nature and place of their settlments, the attitude 
of the Indians in these struggles, the possible 
chances of success, etc., all enter into the full sig- 
nificance of the lesson. 

476. Memory : repetition. — "Repetition is the prime 
irfluence in memory." 

"Of two men with the same outward experiences 
l he one who thinks over his experiences most, and 
weaves them into the most systematic relations 
with each other, will be the one with the best 
memory." 

(a) Shozv wherein, if at all, these quotations are con- 
sistent until each other. Give reasons, (b) Explain the 



I 

Questions and Typical Answers 251 

meaning of the second quotation, (c) Give three prac- 
tical reasons as to the most effective way of committing 
to memory a specified poem. 

Answer Applied to English. 
(a ) "Repetitio mater studiorum" is an old maxim 
in education; and too often the repetition was of a 
mere mechanical nature, — simply going over again 
the facts to be learned without throwing any new 
lights upon them or attempting to bring them into 
any systematic relation. In this way, the catechism, 
multiplication table, and a large amount of historical 
data were hammered into the minds of children for 
generations. This form of repetition as an aid to 
the memory depends upon the law of contiguity, 
viz.: that objects or ideas occuring together in time 
or space tend to recall each other. 

The second quotation is not entirely consistent 
with the first, for repetition is not limited to one 
process. There is the mere mechanical repetition 
already discussed, but there is also another kind, 
repetition by the association of ideas. Both forms of 
repetition are important aids to the memory. Both 
may be exercised upon the same facts or ideas. 
Therefore the quotations are consistent. The 
second form, however, is much more valuable as it 
develops the powers of discrimination and judgment 
and leads to logical memory. 

(b) The second form of repetition depends on 
association by similarity or contrast. Here the 
chances of recall are greatly multiplied by the idea 
being interwoven into systematic relations with 
other ideas of the same sort. This kind of repcti- 



252 The Science of Education 

tion is practically the same thing as the association 
of ideas, which constitutes the basis for appercep- 
tion. Two men might read the same passage from 
a historical work an equal number of times, and 
one see merely a succession of historical events. 
The other, looking to the law of cause and effect 
and noting relations of similarity and contrast, not 
only sees the inner meaning of what he has read, 
but can recall the several facts with little effort, 
because they are woven into a logical fabric by the 
threads of association. His mind is like the tele- 
phone system of a large" city. He can give every 
incoming idea a "connection" with almost every 
other he possesses. 

(c) 1. Study the life and character of the author, 
the events of the time and the influence that called 
the poem forth, and, as far as possible, try to 
breathe the same atmosphere and feel the same 
feelings that prompted the poet to the creation of 
his work. 2. Read the whole poem over several 
times ; first as you would read any piece of litera- 
ture, getting the spirit and idea of the poem as 
a whole ; the second time analyzing the poem 
into parts and getting a clear perception of the 
meaning of each part; the third time, fixing the 
attention on the relation of the parts to each other 
and to the whole poem. 3. Make a special study 
of all allusions, new words and words used in spe- 
cial senses, and the thought echoes from one part 
of the poem to another. Then memorize not by 
mechanical repetition of words, but by linking all 
the parts into a chain of ideas, and thinking this 



Questions and Typical Answers 253 

chain through, until the movement of the thought 
is perfectly familiar, and the whole poem becomes 
a part of you as truly as it was a part of the au- 
thor. 

477. Serviceable memory. — Whai \are the charac- 
teristics of a serviceable memory? How far and by zvhat 
means may it be cultivated? 

Memory has three stages : 

1. Apprehension or fixing in memory. 

2. Reflection or keeping in memory. 

3. Reproduction or bringing to consciousness 

when needed. 

In order that a memory may be serviceable, at- 
tention must be paid to all three stages. Each is 
of importance. 

Apprehension is of great importance. Sense im- 
pression is its fundamental law. The stronger the 
impression made upon the senses the greater will 
be the power of retention and reproduction. 

If the first stage has been well begun, retention, 
or keeping in memory is not likely to be a difficult 
action, i. e., the thing fixed is not likely to sink so 
far into sub-consciousness as to be impossible of re- 
call. The third stage presents repetition or repro- 
duction as a necessary adjunct of a serviceable 
memory. As the race loses power of any faculty 
which remains unused, so the mind forgets the 
thing fixed and held in memory if that thing is not 
called to consciousness for use at various intervals. 
For instance, I once fixed or impressed in memory 
a certain Latin word. Memory held that word in 
subconsciousness ready for use. I neglected to 



254 The Science of Education 



bring to consciousness after a certain number of 
repetitions. I now have forgotten the word. 

A serviceable memory, then, is a memory which 
responds to the needs of normal conditions of life. 
Such a memory requires exercise and plenty of it. 
All the work of school and life tends to cultivate 
memory. 

478. Association of ideas. — State or describe the 
doctrine of association of ideas, and illustrate by show- 
ing the applications of it in the learning of history. 

Answer. The doctrine of association of ideas, 
simply stated, means that if two associated ideas 
enter the mind, the recalling of one of those ideas 
tends to recall the other. These conditions give 
rise to two fundamental laws of association, — As- 
sociation by Contiguity and Association by Simi- 
larity. Titchener has reduced these to one law, 
that of Association by Similarity. The law stated 
in physiological terms is, "That any two ideas which 
have one or more elements (neurones) in common 
tend to recall one another upon the consciousness 
of either." When you learned that Columbus dis- 
covered America, you also learned the date, 1492. 
The date is not remembered by reason of its re;- 
semblance to Columbus but by reason of the fact 
that the impression was received contiguously at 
the same time or in immediate succession. The 
two impressions stimulated the same area on the 
brain. Those brain connections are still strong 
enough for one idea, Columbus, to call up another, 
1492. But when Columbus suggests John Cabot 
the fact of simultaneous impression is quite likely 



Questions and Typical Answers 255 

totally absent. The name Columbus recalls the 
name Cabot because several common elements ( neu- 
rones) are involved, such as, their native country, 
both being sailors, both being sent out on a similar 
mission, etc. In the former example one idea re- 
called another because the impressions had been re- 
ceived simultaneously or in immediate succession. 
Here the force of association is due to actual com- 
mon brain neurones involved. 

479. Abstraction. — Illicit is abstraction? Illustrate. 

Answer. Abstraction is the mental process in- 
volved in retaining the common qualities which 
belong to all the individuals of a certain class and 
rejecting the uncommon qualities. A complete 
process of abstraction results in the concept or gen- 
eral notion. It is synonymous with conception. 

In arriving at the concept, adverb, I abstract the 
definition that an adverb is a word that modifies a 
verb, adjective or another adverb by noticing that it 
performs those three functions. The spelling, 
length, and form of the word are not found com- 
mon .in all adverbs and so cannot be taken as parts 
of the definition of an adverb. 

480. Concept, conception, particular notion, 
general notion. — Define and illustrate each. 

Answer. A concept is the mental content corre- 
sponding to a general name. The concept is the 
tag we put on particular things to put them into 
their proper classification. For examples, This is a 
man. This is coal, etc. Man and coal are the gen- 
eral terms standing for concepts. 

The mental process, involved in arriving at the 



256 The Science of Education 

mental content, concept, is conception. It is the 
mental process involved in thinking individuals into 
their proper classes. 

A particular notion is the idea one gets of an ob- 
ject through one sense alone, or through several, or 
through all the senses. Thus, one may get a par- 
ticular notion of a chair through the sense of sight 
alone, but he gets a more complete particular 
notion, or percept, of the chair through sight and 
touch. The latter meaning is usually inferred. 

A general notion is the mental content corre- 
sponding to a general name. It differs from con- 
cept in that it has reference also to the persisting 
common qualities in individual living things. Thus, 
the general notion of a certain person whom you 
know enables you to label and know him as that 
particular person regardless of the physical, mental 
and moral changes he may undergo. The general 
notion is synonymous with concept when it stands 
for any class name, as : noun, man, page. 

48 1 . Concept : formation ; imperfect explained. — 

(a) What are the stages or steps in the formation of a 
concept f (&.) Mention four causes of imperfection in 
concepts f 

Concept is the name given to a general idea, such 
as apple, man, tree. Take for example, the de- 
velopment of the concept, "man." Under the first 
step, presentation of material, the greatest possible 
variety of specimens of human beings, is considered. 
These are compared with one another, their com- 
mon characteristics retained and v the uncommon 
ones rejected, Under this head there would be ruled 



Questions and Typical Answers 257 

out such diverse characteristics as color of hair, 
color of skin, size, speech, etc. When the com- 
mon qualities are retained and the concept is classi- 
fied, we say (1) that man is a thing having physical 
existence, (2) he is a living thing, (3) he is the 
reasoning living thing. Hence, our definition says, 
"Man is an animal that reasons." Every concept 
implies species, genus and differentia. 

The four causes of imperfect concepts are: (1) 
the examination of an insufficient number of vari- 
ous individuals belonging to the same class; (2) in- 
accurate use of terms by which we seek to define 
qualities of things, (3) imperfect percepts of the 
material presented, (4) inaccurate abstraction due 
to loose grouping of what are supposed to be com- 
mon qualities which distinguish one class from all 
others. 

482. General notions. 

"General principles (concepts, laws) without par r 
ticulars are empty; particulars (percepts, facts) 
without general notions are blind." 

Explain this principle Illustrate its application. 

Answer. In a complete process of apperception 
were found the two processes, induction and de- 
duction. To arrive at the concept or the rule we 
had to have a sufficiently varied number of indi- 
vidual cases. These were compared and associated. 
The quality, or qualities, common to ail was re- 
tained and the definition formed. Where these steps 
are not employed in arriving at the rule, the rule is 
empty and meaningless. To tell pupils that to add 
fractions you must make the denominators com- 



258 The Science of Education 

mon is a general principle but empty in itself. Hav- 
ing given the rule in this way the pupil sees no 
essential relation between the rule and the indivi- 
dual cases falling under the rule. Suppose that all 
the. experiences the individual has in his life-time 
remained separate things, that no unification or 
grouping into classes was possible. There would 
have to be a name for every human experience. The 
experiences of different individuals to which we 
give a common name could not even be grouped. 
Each individual would have his own name for every 
percept he had as a result of every new experience. 
This being the case, language would be impossible. 
Mere percepts would be blind. It takes individual 
percepts to give meaning to concepts and concepts 
must be had to see percepts. For example, the 
pupil must first learn what a name is by examining 
many names of things. After he knows that a 
name is a name he can recognize names as names 
and not before this. 

483. Mind- wandering. — (a) Describe mind-wan- 
dering, and give the psychological causes of it. 

b) How can mind-ivandering be overcome . or cured? 

No matter how scatter-brained the type of a 
man's succesive fields of consciousness may be, if 
he really care for a subject, he will return to it in- 
cessantly from his incessant wanderings, and first 
and last do more with it, and get more results from 
it, than another person whose attention may be 
more continuous during a given interval, but whose 
passion for the subject is of a more languid and less 
oermanent sort. Some of the most efficient workers 



Questions and Typical Answers 259 

I know are of the ultra-scatter-brained type. One 
friend, who does a prodigious quantity of work, has 
in fact confessed to me that, if he wants to get ideas 
on any subject, he sits down to work at something 
else, his best results coming through his mind-wan- 
derings. This is perhaps an epigrammatic exagger- 
ation on his part ; but I seriously think that no one 
of us need be too much distressed at his own short- 
comings in this regard. Our mind may enjoy but 
little comfort, may be restless and feel confused; 
but it may be extremely efficient all the same. — 
James, Talks to Teachers, 114. 

484. Mind-wandering. — (a) Describe mind-zuan- 
dering, and give the psychological causes of it. (b) Hozv 
can mind-wandering be overcome or cured? 

Answer. When a mature individual can not 
keep his attention focused on one idea or thing for 
any length of time, he is said to be affected with 
mind-wandering. Since this is the natural state of 
children's attention we do not, in that instance, 
speak of mind-wandering. 

Mind-wandering may be due to an undeveloped 
voluntary attention or it may be due to the con- 
tention of ideas which appeal to the individual's 
mind with equal force. 

The cure for the former kind of mind-wandering 
is found in applying one's self to report a certain ex- 
perience accurately. The account should be short 
but emphasis must be laid on its accuracy. Having 
accomplished this end, report accurately a more 
complex experience, etc. As an illustration, let the 
subject accurately report the contents of a single 



260 The Science of Education 

sentence, then, of a paragraph, then of a page, etc. 

The second kind of mind-wandering, James 
thinks, needs no cure. The fact is, that by means 
of such mind-wandering the individual often hap- 
pens upon the very point he could not arrive at in 
any other way. For example, the solution of a 
problem is not possible for the time being. Another 
line of activity is taken up. All at once, the problem 
appears in a new light and is solved. 

485. Judgment and conception. — Distinguish be- 
tween judgment and conception, and shozv the close con- 
nection between these ttvo processes. What is meant by 
saying that "all our judgments are at hrst synthetic, 
though they tend to become analytic as our knozuledge 
of things is perfected?" 

Answer. Conception is the mental process by 
which a general idea is reached. This general idea 
is given a name, such as : book, dog, etc. Through 
judgment we compare two concepts, noting their 
agreement or disagreement. For illustration, let us 
take the sentence, "Man is an animal." The two 
concepts compared here are man and animal. In 
determining whether a thing belongs to the class 
animal, in noting every quality judgment must be 
^assed whether that quality would admit the possi- 
bility of its being placed in that class. The same 
is true in arriving at a proper classification of in- 
dividuals embraced by the term man. In deciding 
whether four-footedness is a characteristic neces- 
sary to decide whether a thing belongs to the class 
animal or not we compare the concept "four-footed- 
ness" with "animal." In our decision we make a 



Questions and Typical Answers 26) 

judgment. Conception and judgment are mutually 
dependent. We must have concepts to be compared 
to have judgment and we must have judgments to 
arrive at a concept. 

"Judgments are at first synthetic, though they 
tend to become analytic as our knowledge of things 
is perfected," means that we first "generalize and 
then analyze." A child sees a rhinoceros for the 
first time. At once, he calls the animal a cow, the 
thing which it most nearly resembles. The judg- 
ment is synthetic. A closer study of the rhinoceros 
by which the child corroborates his synthetic judg- 
ment or refutes it by getting a closer knowledge of 
the thing is analytic. The same would be true of 
the statement that the child has never seen an ani- 
mal like it. Closer study reveals whether his state- 
ment were true or not. The fact remains that the 
first judgment is synthetic and closer study of the 
thing requires analytic judgments. 

Conduct of the Recitation 

486. Heuristic method. — Uliat is the value of the 
heuristic or laboratory method? 

Answer. The heuristic method tells the pupil 
but little directly; it leads him on by questions and 
problems. It avoids the leading character of the 
questions of the Socratic method, but aims to put 
the pupil into the attitude of a discoverer by pro- 
posing questions and problems whose replies are 
not obvious though within the power of the pupil'. 
This method is essentially active and constructive. — 
Young. The Teaching of Mathematics, p. 61. 



262 The Science of Education 

487. Induction, deduction. — Distinguish between 
induction and deduction in teaching and state your views 
as to the appropriate uses of each. 

Induction is a process of reasoning which estab- 
lishes a general rule, definition or principle from 
the knowledge of particular cases. I wish to teach 
that a noun is a word used as a name. I write five 
sentences containing nouns. I question. How is 
such a word used? It is the name of . I con- 
tinue until all nouns have been so treated. Children 
give words used as names. At end of lesson tell 
children what words used as names are called. Chil- 
dren learn definition. A noun is a word used as a 
name. This is the process of teaching noun by in- 
duction. 

Deduction is the process of reasoning by giving 
a general rule, definition or principle and applying 
it to particular cases. 

I give the definition. A noun is a word used as a 
name. Children learn. I write five sentences on 
blackboard. Children find words used as names and 
call them nouns? This is teaching noun by process 
of deduction. 

Induction is the process of finding out principles 
for one's self. It is experimental. It is speculative. 
Deduction is the process of taking opinions of 
others and verifying or applying those opinions. 

Both kinds of reasoning are useful. Every well 
taught lesson should embrace both. Children should 
be taught by inductive-deductive process wherever 
possible. That is, teacher should be questioning, 
etc., elicit general rule from children and then give 



Questions and Typical Answers 263 

them plenty of opportunities to apply their own 
rules. The first part is inductive; the second, de- 
ductive. 

488. Assignment of lessons criticised. — (a) Criti- 
cise each of the following ways of assigning advanced 
lessons, and in each case suggest a proper assignment: 
(1) (/;; history) Study all about the first voyage of 
Columbus and be ready to tell me what difficulties he 
met in getting aid, and everything of that kind." (2) (In 
civics) "Find out as much as you can from your parents, 
or from any other source, about the Government of the 
City of New York." (3) (In science or nature study) 
"Take for to-morrow the next ... .pages." (b) State 
with principles founded upon your reasons, three prin- 
ciples to guide in the assignment of lessons. 

(a) ( 1 ) Careless work on the part of the teacher. 
Enough work is suggested to the earnest student to 
discourage him. The average student needs a more 
direct assignment with reference to certain places 
for it. 

Suggested assignment: Why Columbus wished 
to find a route to India. His plan to reach the In- 
dies. Reason for this plan. How viewed by the 
people. Efforts to secure aid. Result. First voy- 
age. Equipment. Starting place. Incidents on 
voyage. Land ! Character of natives. 

I would not assign more than the topics preced- 
ing the "First Voyage" for one lesson. 

(2) Wrong, for most people know very little of 
the way a city is governed. It is a general question 
not likely to interest pupils or engage the attention 
of the pupil's parent. Some parents would probably 
give undesirable information. 



264 • The Science of Education 

Suggested assignment: Ask pupils to find out at 
home, if no books are available, who arranges for 
the lighting of the city every night, and who pay 
for the care of the lights. Or, how are school build- 
ings secured ! How are the principals and teachers 
paid? 

Either of these subjects would represent some-* 
thing touching the child's life ; hence, better sub- 
jects. 

(3) Very bad. To assign so much work from a 
book when so much material is at hand is inexcusa- 
ble. Memory will be trained, but imagination, rea- 
soning and judgment are higher powers and more 
delightful ones to engage. Suggestion: We are to 
talk about the dragon-fly to-morrow, and I wish you 
to be able to tell then where the dragon-fly is often 
seen and why he likes such places. Why is he one 
of our best insect friends? 

(b) Following are the principles to guide in the 
assignment of lessons : 

(1) The ability of the pupil. — It is useless to ask 
a child to do more than he is able. 

(2) The time at his disposal. — A high school 
teacher made the remark that she expected the 
pupils to work at least one hour on her subject. 
When asked what the pupil would do if each teacher 
required the same amount of time, replied that she 
had not thought of it in that way. 

(3) The ground to be covered. — In our school 
system a certain amount of work must be done 
each year. To accomplish this a teacher must as- 
sign enough work each day to cover the ground. 



Questions and Typical Answers 265 

489. Discussion in class. — Treat the subject of dis- 
cussion as an element in class instruction under the fol- 
lowing heads: (a) Advantages of discussion in class. 

(2) (b) Dangers in such discussion. (3) (c) Direc- 
tions for creating and profitably conducting a discussion- 

(3) (d) Characteristics of effective discussion. (5) (e) 
Illustrations of profitable discussion, in class, showing 
mode of creating and guiding it. (5) 

Answer. An accepted answer is given in full in 
outline form in Methods in Education, p. 95. Put that 
matter into essay form if you prefer the essay form. 

490. Education outside of class instruction. — 
Describe the ways in which a high school teacher can 
subserve the educative ends of the schools through ac- 
tivities not directly connected with the scheduled class 
instruction. (15) 

Answer. A high school teacher, especially one 
regularly in charge of a classroom, can in many 
ways besides class instruction subserve the educa- 
tional ends of the school. First of all, there is the 
matter of regularity and promptness in attendance. 
By carefully investigating cases of absence and 
tardiness, he can help the student to form the habits 
of regularity and promptness so truly essential to 
success. Again, the general attitude of the pupil 
toward the school and toward his studies is a matter 
in which the teacher can make himself an influence. 
A boy may be obstreperous or disagreeable in the 
recitation of some particular teacher ; and, in such 
cases, the teacher in general charge of the boy can 
co-operate with the teacher of the subject, to the 
benefit of all parties concerned. Further, the use of 



266 The Science of Education 

time, especially before school in the morning, is an 
important point to the student and the teacher in 
charge of the room should see to it that every in- 
dividual boy uses his time to the best advantage. 

In short, the teacher must consider and become 
familiar with the individuality of all his students, so 
that he can be sympathetic in all his relations to 
them. The fact that the teacher shows an interest 
in other subjects besides his own, and sometimes 
gives helpful suggestions in regard to lessons in 
those subjects, goes a long way toward making him 
respected by the boys. Further, the record of all 
his class in their various subjects should be scruti- 
nized by the "official class teacher" so that he can 
discover the boy's trouble and help him where he 
can. 

There are other activities, — athletics, musical 
clubs, school papers, debating societies and the like 
where the teacher can and ought to interest himself, 
so far as consistent with his own time and strength. 
In a large city, it is impracticable for a teacher to 
get acquainted with his pupils in their homes, but 
he should welcome every occasion of meeting their 
parents and friends, who sometimes visit the school, 
and showing that his interest in the boys is genuine. 
A mandatory regulation in New York City (1911) 
provides for assignment for systematic visitation of 
the pupils' homes. 

For further consideration of this important topic, 
see affiliated interests, educational agencies, and supple- 
mentary activities in index -of Methods in Education, 
Answers in School Management, or this book. 



Questions and Typical Answers 267 

491. Note books. — What are the chief uses of note 
books by the pupils? 

Answer. The chief uses of note books are: (1) 
for reference work in class; (2) to record develop- 
ments made in class and not found in the text; (3). 
to record the assignment. 

When matters are being developed orally in the 
class the attention should not be distracted by tak- 
ing notes ; after the topic is somewhat formulated it 
may be briefly recorded as far as necessary to sup- 
plement the text. Unless fixed by notes the ma- 
terial is likely to be lost. — Young, The Teaching of 
Mathematics, p. 147. 

Young's opinion seems to favor the study of what 
is printed instead of copying it. Copying as a 
learning process has been abused. The modern 
view may be summarized. 

1. Use note books for research work, such as 
collateral reading. This permits originality. 

2. Use note books to supplement text-books in 
regular use. 

3. Use note books to record or classify essentials 
of daily study and recitations. 

492. Too much written work. — There is a feeling 
that too much written work is called for in our schools. 
Give three valid objections that are made. 

Answer, i. It is a device for occupying the 
time of pupils for the sake of giving release to the 
teacher. 

2. The papers are not criticised and returned to 
pupils and so it is a waste of energy. 

3. The habits of carelessness and inaccuracy are 



268 The Science of Education 

a result of number i. Pupils know that their work 
is not examined and they are satisfied to submit 
written productions that are far below the standard 
of oral exercises in that same class. Much of the ex- 
perience in later life dependsupon the power of oral 
communication of thought. So much written work 
is not a guarantee that the pupil will be able to do 
what is required from him in the. line of oral com- 
munication. 

The positive view of the value of written work is 
well expressed by Young, page 147: 

"The value of written exercises is evident as giv- 
ing the teacher an opportunity to see to what extent 
the pupil has the work in hand, and what points are 
still weak ; of training the pupil to quiet thinking, 
accurate work, clearness of style, orderly arrange- 
ment, to neatness, to careful expression. But the 
written exercises must be so conducted as to attain 
these needs. Almost all of them are often missed 
by an assignment too large for the allotted time." 

493. Marking pupils' papers. — In marking pupils'' 
papers do you indicate zvhat is right or what is zvrongf 
Why? Do you use per cents or letters? Why? 

The purpose of all marking, like Socratic ques- 
tioning, is twofold. The first aim is to show the 
child the existence of error in his answers ; and the 
second aim to cause him, through his own efforts, to 
reach the truth. So the ultimate process requires 
the pupil to separate what is right from what is 
wrong — a matter of subtraction ; and the teacher's 
plan of marking should be whatever is most helpful 



Questions and Typical Answers 269 

in causing the individual pupil or the class to attain 
the desired ends. Various plans may be justified. 

1. Sometimes indicate both wrong and right. 
The child then contrasts amount correctly done 
with amount incorrectly done. 

2. Sometimes mark only wrong. If children are 
becoming too self-satisfied, too easily pleased with 
a poorly learned lesson, arouse the instinct of pug- 
nacity by showing him his poor work. He will strive 
to overcome weaknesses. See Talks to Teachers, 
P- 54- 

3. Sometimes mark only what is right. This 
gives encouragement to the backward pupil and will 
often bring up a pupil who is laboring under dis- 
couragement. This is a good method to try with 
the dull, backward child of little brain but great in- 
dustry. Such types are found in every school. They 
are the ones whom a little praise does not spoil. 
Tactful praise of this kind, i. e., the bringing out of 
good points, may also be means of converting the 
bad boy into the model pupil. 

I should use per cent whenever the work can 
easily be thus marked as in spelling and written 
arithmetic. It is an honest way and children can 
compute their own marks. They like to do this. 
This is a good place to use emulation. Children 
compare per cents from week to week and try to do 
better. , 

In such studies as grammar, history, geography, 
oral arithmetic, etc., it is better to use letters. One 
cannot determine accurately the per cent in such 



270 The Science of Education 

studies as one has no exact standard of measure- 
ment. The mind gives judgment or decision in such 
studies as excellent, good, fair, unsatisfactory, poor. 
Letters may be used signifying this classification. 

494. Cramming. 

"Cramming seeks to stamp things in by intense 
application immediately before the ordeal. But a 
thing thus learned can form but few associations. 
On the other hand, the same thing recurring on 
different days, in different contexts, read, recited 
on, referred to again and again, related to other 
things and reviewed, gets well wrought into the 
mental structure" (James). 

(a) State two principles of mental activity that are 
implied in this passage, (b) State two general rules of 
method suggested by this passage. Illustrate their ap- 
plication. 

Answer. The college student who does not get 
his lessons day by day by studying each lesson care- 
fully before going to class and, in addition, relating 
what he learns in class to what he first got out of 
the lesson, but puts off the getting of the term's 
work up to two weeks before the examination and 
then sets about to pass the final tests by burning 
the midnight oil for the rest of the term, "crams." 
By such short, constant, persistent repetition of 
the material covered during the term, he may be 
able to pass the examination but forgets nearly all 
he remembered up to the time of the emergency 
just as soon as the emergency is over. Why does he 
retain just so long and then forget? Why does the 
student who pursues the opposite course retain? 



Questions and Typical Answers 271 

The two principles underlying these mental phe- 
nomena are, ( 1 ) that the frequency of impressions 
insures their retention for a short time by reason of 
the deepening of a single nerve pathway, (2) that 
experiences gradually woven into the general 
growth and development of mental experiences are 
permanently retained. The former impressions are 
merely stamped on the outside and soon disappear. 
The latter remain as a part of the thing in which 
they are included. 

The rules of method to be deduced are these: (1) 
Have pupils learn by repetition things which, 
though not understood now, will be valuable later 
on when they are able to relate them to many other 
facts and experiences; (2) Repeat such facts and 
experiences, as have been learned and understood, 
by means of the widest possible association until 
they become permanently fixed. For example, 
under one, commit to memory literary gems for 
future use. Under two, after a theorem in geome- 
try, a rule in arithmetic, a rule in grammar, etc., has 
been understood, commit it to memory by a suffi- 
cient number of repetitions. 

495. Study, art of: three directions. — Concerning 
the art of study, give three directions such as high school 
pupils might profitably follow. Give a reason for each 
direction. (15) 

Answer. ( 1 ) On independence in study. One of the 
chief evils existing among high school pupils is the 
lack of mental independence. Sometimes it takes 
the vicious form of copying, as in algebra or Latin 
composition ; sometimes, as in Greek or Latin, the 



272. The Science of Education 

use of printed translations; and, again, sometimes 
the trouble is due to oral help from other pupils or 
even from the teacher. Here is one field in which 
the teacher can make himself a force, — in the de- 
stroying of this helpless dependence and the build- 
ing up of a spirit of honest individual effort. 

The teacher must take pains to ascertain the 
cause of the boy's trouble. Sometimes the boy 
does not know where to find out the needed infor- 
mation. Here is where he needs practical help in 
the use of dictionaries, encyclopaedias and refer- 
ence works and very often, he needs help in 
methods of using his own text-books. For instance, 
many Latin students do not know how to utilize all 
the helps contained in their edition of Caesar or 
Cicero. Again, it is often defective observation 
that is the cause of the student's trouble, and too 
often it is the absence of ambition and a healthy 
"fighting spirit." The strenuous life has its place 
in school, also, and unless the boys of this age are 
willing to grapple with the knotty problems of their 
studies, it is hardly probable that they will succeed 
when it comes to facing the battle of life. The 
efficient teacher will seek to discover the cause of 
dependence in the individual pupil, and having cor- 
rectly diagnosed the case, apply the indicated 
remedy. 

(2) On the making of notes. One boy sits merely 
"poring over" his book, and another with pencil al- 
ways in hand, jots down on paper or in a notebook 
the facts and points he considers important. Other 






Questions and Typical Answers 273 

things being equal, it is an easy guess which of the 
two is going to make the better student. Let the 
student learn to take notes systematically and 
study always with pencil in hand. It takes more 
time, perhaps, and requires more effort at first, but 
it is an important aid to concentration, and that is 
one of its chief advantages. Another is that the 
boy is not only multiplying his impressions and 
consequently his chances of recalling, but he is also 
translating his impression into expression in terms 
of his own thought. He is learning discrimination 
between the important and unimportant. He is 
economizing time and learning to study systemati- 
cally. Practice will enable him to tell better what 
is worth noting down, and what is to be passed 
over, and he feels that he is gaining in power, and 
so' he is spurred on to the attaining of excellence in 
all his work. 

(3) On daily reviews. The president of one of 
our leading universities, when advising a class of 
freshmen on methods of study, urged it upon them 
to make it a practice to review carefully each day's 
lesson as soon as possible after the recitation, at all 
events before beginning the preparation of the next 
day's lesson. This is in full accord with the 
psychology of memory and the doctrine of apper- 
ception. Not only does this daily review "fix" the 
recitation by simply repeating the process, but it 
throws new lights upon the various points and 
brings them into systematic relation. The student 
not only clears up his difficulties, but when he 
leaves the lesson, he leaves it in terms of his own 



274 The Science of Education 

individuality; and if he keeps up this practice con- 
sistently, the whole work of the term is related and 
bound together, and the practice of cramming for 
examinations may be entirely dispensed with. 

496. Home study. — Outline or otherwise present 
your opinion on the assignment of work to be done at 
the homes of pupils- 

Answer. A paragraph on home lessons as a 
means of harmonization and also an outline for 
discussion are given on page 64 of Methods in Edu- 
cation. Another presentation is given in the next 
two paragraphs. 

In regard to outside study, there should be no 
lessons to be learned at home before the twelfth 
year; then only three-quarters of an hour of home 
study. In the thirteenth year an hour may be al- 
lowed, and after that an increasing amount up to 
two hours. Study should be mostly done at the 
school under the teacher's supervision. Recitation 
should be short and intense, so that there may be 
concentration. Not more than ten or fifteen min- 
utes in the first two years of school life; fifteen to 
twenty minutes the next two years ; twenty to 
twenty-five minutes the fourth and fifth years; 
forty to forty-five minutes in the high school. 

The arrangement of studies should be such that 
those requiring more mental power, more reason- 
ing, as mathematics, science, grammar, are taken 
up in the morning; and but one short, difficult 
lesson after the noon-day recess. The line of men- 
tal energy for the day can be represented by a 
double curve starting at 9 o'clock, rising until 10, 



Questions and Typical Answers 275 

and then descending rapidly until 12:30; the other 
part of the curve starting at 12:30, rising until 2, 
but not to the level of 10 o'clock, and then falling 
with great rapidity until 4 o'clock. Music, draw- 
ing, writing, gymnastics should be used to relieve 
the more exacting lessons. The afternoon should 
be spent in manual training, games, cross-country 
walks, and excursions to some historical spot or 
museum. Every pupil should be required to get 
out into the air, away from his books. The studious 
child needs this the most of all. — Dr. LaFetra, of 
Teachers' College, in article in New York Times. 

497. Same as 496. 

Answer. Home study appears necessary on ac- 
count of the stupendous task of giving to the in- 
dividual any real command of his "spiritual in- 
heritance." The amount of ground to be covered 
is so tremendous, the requirements of higher in- 
stitutions so pressing, the examination system so 
exacting, that it is not within the realm of possi- 
bility to do all we are at present obliged to do in 
the school. It may be that our knowledge of the 
human mind and the possibilities of correlations 
are the underlying sources of the difficulty. Aside 
from all this, however, it is advisable to assign 
home study for the sake of the development of self- 
activity and independent work so desirable in the 
individual. 

In the last few weeks I have., however, made a 
successful experiment in lessening home study. I 
believe that girls often pour over their books too 
long from pure conscientiousness, I suggested to 



276 The Science of Education 

some five girls who averaged in the 90's on suc- 
cessive tests to leave the books in my subject in 
the schoolroom on Friday nights. I told them I 
should like to see what they could do without prep- 
aration on Monday morning. I then arranged to 
make Friday a kind of review day as far as the 
recitation was concerned. I sent a number of the 
most backward pupils to the board with questions 
written on slips of paper to bring out "mooted 
points," did individual work with a few others, and 
allowed my stars to work on Monday's lesson 
which naturally had been assigned at the beginning 
of the period. The experiment has worked beauti- 
fully. Everybody wants to get into the star group 
and leave books in their desks Friday night. At- 
tention has increased, and the tone of the work is 
good. 

To summarize the bad side of assignment of 
lessons I should say: 

(a) Attention to verbal presentation is often 
weak, because the child thinks, "Oh, it's all in the 
book anyway," which results in 

(b) Consequent waste of time. 

(c) Neglect of these opportunities for learning 
of practical matters which the home affords. 

(d) Danger of new study. 

498. Discovery vs. being told. — It is better for 
a child to discover than to be told. 

(a) Give two reasons (drawn from psychology) for 
the truth of this statement, (b) Illustrate a possible ex- 
ception. 

Answer, (a) Self-activity and interest are the 



Questions and Typical Answers 2.77 

two psychological reasons for the above statement. 
By self-activity is meant that form of self-direction 
which finds its primal impulse within itself. Every 
normal child is full of physical and mental action. 
If we can simply surround him with proper stimuli, 
his powers will develop largely without further 
trouble on our part. Applying this fact to educa- 
tion, we find experimentally that there is no real 
development without a great deal of this enlisted 
activity on the part of the child. We cannot arouse 
it, however, unless we secure his interest. By in- 
terest, in the psychological sense, we mean the 
"feeling side of apperception." In other words, he 
must feel that he wants to know or to do what we 
are trying to teach him to do. Spencer says let 
the child face the difficulty before the solution is 
presented. He will then be interested in the solu- 
tion. 

(b) The exception to this rule is also found in 
the nature of the child's mind. The power of at- 
tention in young children is limited in time to a few 
moments. If the child is allowed to puzzle over a 
difficulty too long, discouragement sets in, and in- 
terest is destroyed. For instance, if the meaning 
of a German sentence is not discovered, because of 
a forgotten idiom, there are two reasons why it is 
often best to tell it at once. It might incur too 
serious a loss of time to send the child to a large 
dictionary and even if this were not the case, it 
might divert his interest from some more impor- 
tant line of work, as the enjoyment of metrical 
form of rhythm. 



278 The Science of Education 

499. Concert recitation. — (a) From the psycho- 
logical point of view what advantage and what disad- 
vantage is there in rote or concert recitation? (b) To 
what extent and in what subjects would you make use 
of such an exercise ? Give reasons. 

Answer, (a) Rote or concert recitations are 
usually used as memory drills. They presuppose 
that the thing reproduced has been apprehended 
and kept in memory. Now we give exercise to 
the third stage of every complete act of memory 
or the stage of bringing to memory or reproduc- 
tion. If concert recitation is used as memory drill 
in this manner it is perfectly legitimate as the 
words given by children correspond to ideas al- 
ready in child's mind. Where such work is used to 
fix ideas for first time in child's mind it is wholly 
at fault psychologically. It is in opposition to the 
principle that the mind should gain through the 
senses its knowledge of everything external to it- 
self. The words said do not correspond to con- 
cepts in child's mind. 

(b) I should use concert work where I wished 
for repetition for the purpose of exercising memory 
and yet had not time to give each child an oppor- 
tunity to recite. Herbart recommends repetition 
of this kind. It is well to use concert work also for 
variety. Child grows tired of always doing things 
in same way. If we are sure the ideas are behind 
the words, it promotes self-activity. It is well to 
use it to overcome diffidence on part of child. In 
reading for expression I find that children will 
imitate good expression if allowed to give in con- 






Questions and Typical Answers 279 

cert where a failure would result if the same recita- 
tion must be given alone. In reading Shakspere 
I have been led to find where diffidence was first 
conquered in concert work. Concert is useful in 
promoting self-activity and strengthening memory 
in the recitation of memory gems. Concert recita- 
tion likewise gives social stimulus. Children like 
to work together in this way. 

500. Adolescence: characteristics, tendencies, 
principles for guidance. 

"Adolescence is the Elizabethan period of human 
existence. Rousseau likens it to the Renaissance." 

What characteristics of adolescence are there implied? 
Mention three tendencies of adolescence that may be- 
come morbidly prominent. Give three principles to guide 
the teacher in the wise management of a class of adoles- 
cents. 

Note. — The completed quotation reads: "Rous- 
seau likens it to the Renaissance — the first birth 
being that of the body, the second birth that of the 
soul, the personality." From an article on Adoles- 
cence, by Dr. LaFetra, Teachers' Monographs, Octo- 
ber, 1901, p. 63. 

Answer. The force of the above quotation will 
be made more clear if we invert it and say that the 
Elizabethan period was the adolescence of English 
thought, literature and national life ; and that the 
Renaissance was the adolescence of all Europe, the 
transition from the childhood of the dark ages to 
the maturity and enlightenment of the modern 
world. The characteristics of adolescence implied 
in the quotation are the awakening of self-con- 



280 The Science of Education 

sciousness of the individual, the flood-tide of the 
emotions, the bursting forth of enthusiasm and 
imagination, the development of a vigorous will, 
and the emancipation of the intellect unfettered by 
tradition and authority — the bulk of freedom of 
thought. 

There is (i) a strong tendency toward physical 
and mental disease, connected with the physical 
changes of body, brain and nervous system, and 
toward overstrain at this critical period. It is at 
this stage of life that hereditary tendencies toward 
abnormal conditions of mind and body begin to 
assert themselves strongly. (2) A tendency to- 
ward morbidity and silliness, on the part of girls ; 
and among boys, toward self-conceit (sometimes 
self-depreciation) and toward "smartness" espe- 
cially in the presence of the girls; this tendency 
being in both sexes the result of the excessive 
self-consciousness which characterizes the period. 
(3) A tendency toward mind-wandering and day- 
dreaming. How often the teacher's question has 
no other effect on the boy than to awaken him 
rudely from one of these reveries ! How often does 
he surprise the boy in a painful and embarrassed 
effort to recall his mind to the topic under dis- 
cussion before he is made the victim of the derisive 
laugh of his fellows ! 

The teacher must remember that there is danger 
of overstrain — much more frequent among girls, as 
they are more likely to be over-conscientious, — 
and lessons must not be assigned so long as to en- 
danger the health and happiness of the pupils. 



Questions and Typical Answers j8i 

Under the departmental system, many teachers 
forget this. On the other hand, the assignment 
for study must call for vigorous and independent 
thinking. The period for babying and coddling is 
past and boys especially must be stimulated to 
energetic effort, or many of them will sink into a 
mental lethargy that will be life-long. Further, the 
teacher must remember that the mind and the will 
of adolescence must be reached through their feel- 
ings. He must get acquainted with the individu- 
ality of his pupil, and find out his native interests 
and capacities, and seek by sympathy and kindness 
to kindle in him a flame of enthusiasm that will 
light up not only the pathway of education but of 
his whole life. 

501. Adolescence: elementary and secondary 
pupils contrasted. — Mention two important respects in 
which pupils of the secondary school stage differ from 
those of the elementary school stage. SJiozv the bearing 
of this difference on secondary teaching. (20) 

Answer Applied to English. The secondary 
school stage is the stage of adolescence. This 
period is distinguished first, by the dominance of 
the emotions or feelings, and secondly by the rise 
and rapid development of reflective reasoning and 
freedom of thought. This is the period of self-con- 
sciousness. Before this, sense of perception, in- 
voluntary attention, plasticity of memory, depend- 
ence upon authority for guidance, and compara- 
tively weak and transitory emotions, have marked 
the period of childhood. 

The teacher must recognize the fact of the new 



282 The Science of Education 

life beginning in his class of adolescents; that self- 
direction and vigorous mental application must be- 
gin in earnest ; and that the dominance of feeling 
must be recognized, and that the intellect must be 
reached through the feelings. The distinction must 
be vigorous and stimulating, calling for concen- 
trated effort, and still always maintaining the 
human interest. School singing, if rightly con- 
ducted, is a valuable instrument for stimulating the 
healthy emotions. School athletics furnish the ac- 
tivity so necessary, for the physical development 
which is fundamental for this period. Literature,, 
perhaps best of all, constitutes the strongest single 
appeal to intellect, emotions and will. With the 
child, it is the wonderful that supplies the chain. 
The romantic, if it exists at all, exists only in 
embryo. Not so with the adolescent. He has en- 
tered into a new world flooded with new thoughts, 
new imaginations, new feelings, and the impulse 
toward the romantic is real and cannot be denied. 
And it is in reading literature that these unframed 
desires and impulses find their expressions; it is 
the novel and not the Latin grammar that is alive 
with interest. 

Ivanhoe is an excellent example of a book suited 
to this period. • It seizes upon the feeling with a 
healthy stimulation, without promoting any sickly 
sentimentality. It is intrinsically worthy for the 
intellect, and by its plot and style brings the student 
into living touch with a real literary masterpiece. 
It furnishes ideals of action and conduct, and so 
helps to form the will. It provides an interesting 



Questions and Typical Answers 283 

basis for the invaluable, but so commonly dull, ex- 
ercises in English Composition. And Ivanhoe is 
but a single example of the literary treasures which 
are open to the students of this period. 

Other subjects, excepting, perhaps, natural 
science in some of the branches, do not exhibit so 
close a connnection with the native interests or 
furnish so showy an appeal to the emotions. In 
these subjects, Latin, for example, the personality 
of the teacher must form the connection between 
subject and pupil. A personal interest in the in- 
dividual student, the faculty of being alive and 
keeping so, real enthusiasm, kindling a similar 
flame of enthusiasm in the mind of the pupil, will 
be sufficient to bridge over the gap, and to bring 
the student to make earnest effort in mastering 
a subject which does so great a service both to his 
knowledge of English and to his processes of think- 
ing. 

502. Emulation. — The Jesuits arc adversely criti- 
cised for their use of emulation. Discuss its use and 
abuse. 

Answer. No teacher of ordinary experience 
can deny that emulation is a legitimate factor in 
the success of every school. Its use by the Jesuits 
is said to have urged one pupil to perform his task 
better than another could perform it, and thus a 
spirit of undesirable rivalry was aroused. Under 
the sociological view of education, it is held that 
every student should strive for the welfare of all 
other students as well as for his own good. In 
other words, the use of emulation, as applied by 



284 The Science of Education 

the Jesuits, does not harmonize with the modern 
view of education. Rousseau would not have Emile 
compare himself with any other children. Emile 
should compare himself with his own past self 
and thus have but one standard for progress. 
James speaks favorably of emulation with one's 
former self, but he puts a far higher value upon 
honest rivalry with another. See Talks, pages 49 
to 54; also Dexter and Garlick, pages 44, 228. 

Emulation is justifiably used every time a teacher 
posts a roll of honor, speaks of individual excel- 
lence, writes a letter of commendation to parents, 
or expresses satisfaction with school work. Emula- 
tion is an instinct that yields readily to tact, as all 
successful teachers know. Its proper use is an 
effective stimulus. 

Misdirected emulation, like other instincts, may 
lead to evil results. The desire to secure prizes 
or other artificial incentives is likely to foster dis- 
honesty. In all these matters, the judgment of an 
experienced teacher is a safe criterion. 

503. Suggestion. — What is meant by suggestion in 
psychology ? 

Answer. Suggestion in psychology implies the 
external substitution of an idea for other ideas in 
the mind which would follow one another in the 
natural flow of consciousness. The student sits at 
his desk in an uncomfortable position. The teacher 
taps him on the shoulder. He sits up erect. I am 
sitting at my table. A box of dates is placed be- 
fore me. The sight of the dates is sufficient to in- 
duce me to take and eat. My interest in the book 






Questions and Typical Answers 285 

goes on uninterruptedly. The person under hyp- 
notic influence is totally subject to suggestion. He 
does exactly what he is told. Some educators be- 
lieve in the power of suggestion to discipline their 
pupils. Externally forced upon the minds of in- 
dividuals, suggestion leaves no chance for the de- 
velopment of will. It is sometimes used in the 
same sense as ideo-motor action where reaction 
follows immediately upon the presence of the idea. 
There is this difference, that in ideo-motor action 
the subject is influenced by objects and not by the 
interposed suggestion ideas of another. 

Suggestion becomes potent in the formation of 
life habits as soon as a teacher arouses the observ- 
ing powers of the class. Every pupil gets much 
from what the teacher says, does and is. The in- 
stinct of imitation makes it possible for the largest 
influences to reach the lives of the children while 
the direct instruction aims at other benefits. The 
teacher's penmanship suggests an ideal ; the ap- 
pearance of the desk is another source of imitation; 
and all the virtues of neatness, accuracy, courtesy, 
etc., may become effective through the silent sug- 
gestion of the teacher's personality. Thus, in a 
broad sense, suggestion is one of the strongest 
educative influences. 

504. Fatigue. — Discuss the physical and the psychi- 
cal aspects of fatigue. 

Answer. The answer may follow the line of 
thought in Dr. LaFetra's article, already cited. 

"Prolonged exercise of any set of cells in the 
body results in fatigue. The cells become drained 



286 The Science of Education 

of their nutriment, exhausted, and so act with diffi- 
culty, if at all. The readiness with which fatigue 
of any part will be produced depends inversely both 
upon the development of the part and upon the 
state of general health. Since the nutriment of 
each cell comes from the blood, and since the 
amount of nutriment stored up in any cell will de- 
pend upon its size, a well-developed muscle in a 
healthy, ruddy boy can undergo exercise much 
longer before becoming fatigued than a poorly de- 
veloped muscle in a pale, sickly boy; and the same 
is true in the case of brain activity. 

"The effects of fatigue,, moreover, are noted not 
only in the part which has been exercised. A day 
of hard lesson produces a tired feeling all over the 
body, not simply in the head. This is because the 
nerve cells, by their activity, produce waste prod- 
ucts, which are gathered up by the blood. These 
are irritating and affect the whole body, being car- 
ried to every part of the blood. When during re- 
pose these products are got rid of, being burned up 
by oxidation and eliminated through the skin and 
other excretory organs, the tired feeling disap- 
pears. During the period of rest, moreover, the 
cells recuperate and reload themselves with nour- 
ishment from the blood, becoming again plump and 
ready for activity. Fatigue which can be readily 
dissipated by a night's rest is spoken of as normal 
fatigue, or as healthy tire. But if there persists a 
tired feeling in the morning after a good night's 
sleep, the fatigue is more than normal. 

"The amount of study or muscular exercise 



Questions and Typical Answers 287 

which produces simply normal fatigue in a healthy 
child may produce abnormal fatigue in a child who 
is physically below par; and if this amount of work 
is continued the child must have a nervous col- 
lapse, or nervous prostration. Children that are 
the offspring of alcoholic or neurotic parents, those 
that are anaemic, those that have defects of sight 
or hearing, those that are growing very rapidly, 
and especially young girls who are just entering 
the period of adolescence, are very susceptible to 
nervous collapse from overwork. Overpressure in 
schools is most apt to show itself in springtime, 
after the long winter, when the children have had 
little outdoor exercise. During this period of the 
year, moreover, increase in height is more rapid; 
this always causes great strain on the bloodmaking 
organs, and so predisposes to anaemia and hence 
to nervous exhaustion. Mouth breathers and those 
children who have adenoid growths in the throat 
are also more liable than others to anaemia and 
abnormal fatigue. 

"Awakening unrefreshed in the morning is one 
of the early signs of abnormal fatigue. Other signs 
are inability to concentrate the attention, loss of 
memory, irritability. If in a more advanced stage, 
there is morbid introspection and worry, perhaps 
hypochondria; next, there may be restlessness, 
diminished sensitiveness, and finally loss of ability 
to feel tired. Fortunately, the latter symptoms 
seldom occur in children. One result of over- 
fatigue is shown by the twitching movements of St. 
Vitus's dance. When any of the above signs appear 



288 The Science of Education 

over-pressure in school is one of the elements to be 
thought of as a cause, and the child should be at 
once relieved of part or all of its school tasks. In 
writing on this subject Dr. Caille has said: 'The 
days of brutally whipping' children have gone. We 
are now refined and whip their brains to death.' 
Children that are convalescent from an illness 
should be specially guarded against returning to 
school too soon, as they may develop defects of 
vision, as well as the general signs of abnormal 
fatigue." 

505. Elective courses. 

"Not until the latter part of the high school is 
reached should there be any latitude in the selec- 
tion of studies. There is at the present time al- 
together too much leeway given to boys and girls 
in this matter. They are not competent to choose 
what is the best for their own development. Study 
along the lines of least resistance does not give 
fibre to the mind; the election of 'snaps' should be 
discouraged and disciplinary studies required, even 
up to the university. In fact, it would be well if 
some kind of disciplinary study could be pursued 
through life. It is of the utmost importance that 
boys and girls learn to do well tasks that are not 
interesting. In life such tasks are constantly aris- 
ing, and even the most important thing one does 
may be at the time distasteful." 

506. Specialization. — Shozv how the elementary 
school may provide for optional zvork in higher education. 

Answer. A satisfactory point of view is found 
in Dr. Maxwell's address before the N. E. A. at 
St. Louis. Four paragraphs follow. 



Questions and Typical Answers 289 

"How is the boy at the age of fourteen to de- 
termine what course he shall like ? Here is a prob- 
lem of the first importance, because the boy's future 
happiness and success in life depend in no small 
measure on the prudence with which he makes his 
selection. It is of the first importance to society 
because there is no economic waste comparable in 
its proportion to that occasioned by setting people 
to work for which they have no natural aptitude. 
I fear we must lay the burden in the first instance 
on the elementary school — a burden which that 
institution has hitherto made but little effort to 
assume. That the elementary school has not done 
more to guide the future academic work of its 
pupils is generally atttributed to one or other of 
two causes, neither of which I believe to be tenable. 

"In the first place, it is claimed that the elemen- 
tary school presents the same subject matter and 
the same activities to all pupils, and, therefore, 
turns out a machine-made product, alike in all its 
parts. The answer is that the elementary school 
must of necessity present the same subjects and 
the same activities to all its pupils, because these 
subjects and these activities constitute the neces- 
sary food and the necessary training of the child 
mind ; that the use of the same studies and the same 
exercises does not result in producing the same 
type of mind and disposition, because different 
minds, according to inherent capacities, react in 
different ways upon the same stimuli ; and, finally, 
that the intellectual capacities, dispositions, and 
tendencies of the graduates of the elementary 



290 The Science of Education 

schools are actually not alike, but as various as 
there are individuals. 

"The second criticism is that the bright pupil is 
made to keep step with the dull pupil. The prob- 
lem really is, not how to drive the bright pupil 
through the grades at railroad speed, but how to 
give the slower pupil the assistance — but little will 
be needed in the majority of cases — that will help 
over obstacles and enable him to keep up with his 
more brilliant companions. Any school which 
lavishes the time and energy of its ablest teachers 
on the more brilliant to the neglect of the duller 
pupils falls far short of its duty. 

"The fault, then, lies neither in the sameness of 
the curriculum nor in the retardation of bright 
pupils, but in the failure of elementary school prin- 
cipals and teachers to realize their responsibility 
for the future welfare of their pupils. Where, on 
the other hand, all pupils have equal opportunities 
and equal advantages, there the teachers,, if they 
take an interest, may note the different reactions 
produced by identical stimuli on different minds, 
and advise the boy of literary ability to take the 
college preparatory course, the one with business 
instincts to take the commercial course, and the 
one with a turn for mechanics to pursue the manual 
training of mechanic arts course. In this way the 
elementary school may become of much greater 
benefit to society than it is at present." 

Harris on symmetry and specialization. 

It is in the first stage, the schools for culture, 
that these five co-ordinate branches should be rep- 



Questions and Typical Answers 291 

resented in a symmetrical manner. On the other 
hand, a course of university study — that is to say 
what is called post-graduate work — and the pro- 
fessional school should be specialized. But special- 
izing should follow a course of study for culture in 
which the whole of human learning and the whole 
of the soul has been considered. From the primary 
school, therefore, on through the academic course 
of the college there should be symmetry, and the 
five co-ordinate groups of studies should be repre- 
sented at each part of the course — at least in each 
year, although perhaps not throughout each part 
of the year. — Psychological Foundations, p. 324. 

507. Punishment: defined, approved, not ap- 
proved. — (a) What is punishment? (b) Describe and 
illustrate two modes of punishment proper for use in 
school; two that should not be used- 

(a) Punishment is the penalty paid for the viola- 
tion of the rules of conduct. 

(b) Private talk in which the teacher aims to 
place the matter before the pupil as it really is, and 
the result if such a course is continued. A boy 
teases a smaller boy on the way to school or on the 
school grounds. He regards it as fun. His opinion 
should change after a short, sincere talk with his 
teacher. 

(c) Detention followed by isolation for repeated 
tardiness, neglect of duty or other wrong-doing. A 
teacher in our school carelessly left her purse con- 
taining a considerable amount in her desk while we 
were at chapel. She missed it on returning to her 
room, and it was found in the yard under some 



292 The Science of Education 

leaves, where a boy had placed it until he could 
safely take it away. It was found that he had been 
guilty of smaller thefts, and his well-arranged plans 
in this instance led to his dismissal. 

Nagging. — The unfortunate manner of continu- 
ally finding fault and ignoring the effort, though 
feeble, that is made. I know a pupil who is happy 
this year in her school life because she has been 
told that she does certain work well — her efforts 
are appreciated and not overlooked because she is 
unable to excel in another line of work. She is not 
continually reminded of her defect. 

Sarcasm. — A teacher has no right to fling his 
bad temper at a defenceless pupil in words that 
ridicule and injure. A teacher of history class in a 
high school frequently humiliates members of his 
class by ridiculing their lack of knowledge or their 
weak expressions. He could use his time more 
profitably. 

Psychology 

508. Psychology: history of. — Outline briefly the 
history of psychology as a science applied to education. 

Answer. See question and answer in section 
417. 

1. Psychology, in the modern sense of the term, 
is comparatively a new science. To be sure we 
have had a so-called mental philosophy since the 
days of Socrates and Plato. The real psychological 
movement began, however, with Herbart's attempt 
to found a psychology upon experience, meta- 
physics and mathematics. 

2. We must come down even to the time of 



Questions and [Typical Answers 293 

Weber, Fechner and Wundt to find psychology, 
even in Germany, established on a firm bases of 
fact. In England, Spencer, Bain, Lewes, Mandsley 
and others, all of whose writings belong to the 
latter part of the nineteenth century, gave form to 
the movement. In this country, so lately was in- 
terest in the new subject awakened that we shall 
not be far astray if we say that scientific psychology 
is a product of the last twenty-five years. The first 
psychological laboratory in America was estab- 
lished at Johns Hopkins University in 1883. The 
first chair of psychology alone with a laboratory 
was founded at the University of Pennsylvania in 
1888. 

3. The two leading periodicals devoted to psy- 
chological studies, the American Journal of Psy- 
chology and the Psychological Review, were found- 
ed in 1887 and 1894 respectively. These facts are 
sufficient, perhaps, to show how recent in this coun- 
try was the birth of a really scientific psychology. — 
Howerth, in Education, Nov., 1902, p. 135. 

509. Psychology: development. — What do you 
consider one of the most valuable results of the modern 
development of psychology? See 394. 

Answer. One of the early results of the psy- 
chological movement was a special interest in the 
development of the child. About 1880, scientific 
observation of child life began in this country, and 
rapidly spread until child study became a fad. Both 
child study and psychology in general began with 
an intensive study of the psychic life of the individ- 
ual, and both revealed the necessity of associating 



294 The Science of Education 

the development of the individual with social de- 
velopment. Herbart himself had maintained that 
"psychology remains incomplete as long as it con- 
siders man only as an isolated individual." (i) 
Vaihinger, Ziller, and other Herbartians advanced 
the idea that the intellectual development of the 
individual summarizes the culture of humanity. 
This idea has expanded into what has been known 
as the "culture epoch" theory. A brief formulation 
of this theory may be found in the initial number of 
Mind, the first English journal devoted to psy- 
chology and philosophy, and founded in 1876, in 
an article by Herbert Spencer on the Comparative 
Psychology of Man, which concludes as follows: 
"A right theory of mental evolution, exhibited by 
humanity at large, giving a key as it does to the 
evolution of the individual mind,, must help to 
rationalize our perverse methods of education; and 
so to raise intellectual power and moral nature." 
Although the theory has been modified, it has 
done much to direct attention to the relation of 
education to social development, and has led to 
the idea, as expressed by Professor Baldwin, that 
"No consistent view of mental development in the 
individual could possibly be reached without a doc- 
trine of the race development of consciousness. 
. The relations of individual development to 
race development are so intimate — the two are so 
identical in fact, that no topic in one can be treated 
with clearness without assuming results in the, 
other." — Howerth, Education, Nov., 1902. 






Questions and Typical Answers 295 

For criticism of the culture, epoch theory, see 
Seeley's Elementary Pedagogy, p. jj. 

510. Psychology and child study. — Show the im- 
portance in psychology of the study of the mental oper- 
ations of children. Give illustrations of conclusions ar- 
rived at from the observation of their words and actions. 

The old idea that children are miniature grown 
people, only that they require the same kind of in- 
struction in smaller amounts, is fast disappearing. 
Children are in no sense like grown individuals. 
The way they think and act is evidence of this 
statement. The child is the slave of instinct, im- 
pulse and blind desire. It takes years of training 
to cultivate will in the child so that he becomes the 
master of his animal tendencies. Beneficial in- 
stincts, impulses and desires must be fostered, and 
harmful instincts, impulses and desires must be 
allowed to die out through disuse. The child has 
many tendencies in common with lower forms of 
animal life. His attention flits from one thing to 
another. He is impressed with things as wholes. 
He is fearful and shy in strange places. He is the 
slave of bodily appetites. He loves play. It is the 
function of child psychology to determine the na- 
ture of these child activities, to suggest the best 
manner in which they can be utilized for further 
development. The child who calls every man 
"papa" has not gotten beyond the crude sense- 
percept. The child who picks to pieces a living 
butterfly has not gotten beyond the stage where 
curiosity outweighs sympathy. The child who tells 
a lie glibly in self-defense does not yet realize the 



296 



The Science of Education 



value of truthfulness to his own conscience and to 
other beings. The teacher who does not know the 
psychological reason for children's words and ac- 
tions can't understand why they think and act as 
they do. The psychology of the child mind ought 
to be a guide to the teacher. 

511. Psychology and teaching. 

'Education has use for psychology only so far 
as it shows the development of mind into higher 
activities and the method of such development." 

Discuss this excerpt in the light of your own experi- 
ence. 

Answer. I say moreover that you make a great, 
a very great mistake, if you think that psychology, 
being the science of the mind's laws, is something 
from which you can deduce definite programmes 
and schemes and methods of instruction for im- 
mediate schoolroom use. Psychology is a science, 
and. teaching is an art ; and sciences never generate 
arts directly out of themselves. An intermediary 
inventive mind must make the application, by using 
its orginality. — James, Talks to Teachers, p. 7. 

The Introduction and Chapter I in Psychologic 
Foundations of Education by Harris will be found 
helpful on this topic. 

512. Psychology and correlation. — What is the 
comparative weight of psychology in determining the 
correlation of studies? 

Psychology holds only a subordinate place in this 
determination, the main determination being the 
demands of one's civilization, — the duties in the 
family, civil society, the state, and the Church. 



Questions and Typical Anwers 297 



Next after this, psychology will furnish important 
considerations regarding methods of instruction, 
the order of topics as adapted to the pupil's capac- 
ity, and the amount of work that such pupils can 
accomplish. — Committee of Fifteen, p. 43. 

513. Psychology, measurement in. — How far is 
measurement possible in psychology? What methods 
are employed in attempting to measure various kinds of 
mental phenomena, and with zvhat results? 

Answer. In recent years efforts have been 
made to measure mental operations. Physical meas- 
urements are unsatisfactory below the point of 
stimulation of a sense-organ and above the point of 
ordinary, normal stimulation. Thus below 16 vi- 
brations to the second and more than 40,000 vibra- 
tions to the second the human ear perceives no 
sound, it matters not how the physical stimulus is 
manipulated or applied. Within the normal field of 
stimulation certain proportions in the intensity of 
stimuli obtain, differing for the different senses. 
For example, to get a sensation of pressure that 
differs recognizably from the preceding one the 
physical pressure must be increased by one-third; 
to get a sensation of light that is perceptibly dif- 
ferent from the preceding one the intensity of light 
must be increased one one-hundredth. Again, re- 
actions to stimuli will differ just as the person upon 
whom the experiment is performed is told to re-act 
in an appropriate manner to the stimulus or to take 
careful notice of the exact nature of the stimulus be- 
fore reacting. The time in the second instance will 
be considerably more than in the first. The results 



298 The Science of Education 

are very unsatisfactory when the experimenter tells 
the subject to compare one sensation with another, 
e. g., whether the succeeding sound is twice, one- 
third or one-half as loud as another. The examples 
just cited all fall under what are called quantitive 
methods in measuring psychical processes. The fact 
that there is a certain proportion between the in- 
tensity of the physical stimulus and a change in 
sensation within the field of normal stimulation of 
a sense-organ is known as a psycho-physical law. 

The other method employed is the qualitative 
method. The aim in this method is not to compare 
the intensity of two sensations within that realm 
of the same sense-organ, but to compare the quali- 
tative difference between two sensations with the 
qualitative difference between two other sensations 
in the realm of the same sense or of different senses. 
For example, the subject is asked to compare the 
difference between middle C and D with the dif- 
ference between E and F. The results obtained by, 
this method are quite satisfactory. 

514. Mind: laws of, experiments.. — What is 
meant by lazvs of mind? How are such lazvs discovered? 
Describe a simple experiment in psychology, indicating 
also the aim and the result of the experiment. 

Answer. With the consciousness of the individ- 
ual begin the operations of the mind. In fact, the 
mind is but the sum total of consciousnesses of the 
individual during his life-time. The way this stream 
of thought must flow for every individual gives rise 
to the laws of mind. 

These laws may be discovered by experiment or 



Questions and Typical Anwers 299 

by observation. Experiment differs from mere 
observation in that the experimenter pre-arranges 
the conditions under which he looks for specific ef- 
fects. The mere observer makes no effort to con- 
trol conditions before looking for effects. The dis- 
tinction between experiment and observation may 
be seen clearly in these examples. By mere ob- 
servation one may notice that the more familiar one 
is with the contents on a printed page the more 
easily these contents are assimilated. In, experi- 
menting, many pages of printed matter are care- 
fully graded according to the amount of difficulty 
they offer for comprehension. The results are tab- 
ulated with equal care. The function of experiment is 
to establish or disprove the results obtained by 
observation. Observation is frequently faulty and 
needs verification or refutation by experiment ; e. g., 
an actor may portray a jovial character and thus 
appear in a joyous mood to his audience when, as a 
matter of fact, his heart is filled with grief. Again, 
observation is more likely to be faulty in psychology 
than in any other science by reason of such out- 
wardly pretended states of mind. Not only does 
observation need verification in psychology but 
even experiment must be verified by introspective 
analysis, i. e., the individual must examine his own 
mental processes noting the agreements and dis- 
agreements between the results of his introspection 
and those gained by experiment and observation. 

Experiment 
I. AIM. To show that the perception of an ex- 



300 The Science of Education 

ternal object is determined by apperception as well 
as by sensation. 

II. DESCRIPTION, (i) Education is a science. 
(2) Look at sentence (1.) What do you see at the 
first glance? Do you really see "Education is a 
science," or would it not be nearer the truth to say 
that inter-changing black and white surfaces make 
different impressions on the retina of your eyes? 
If your perception consisted of pure sensation could 
you designate the stimulus as black and white? 

III. RESULT. At first I seem to see "Educa- 
tion is a science." By observation I know that the 
illiterate whose eyes are just as perfect as mine 
could not see such a sentence. By introspection I 
know that if I could not read and did not know 
white from black, the stimulus could not appear as 
white and black to me. 

IV. CONCLUSION. The perception of an ex- 
ternal object is determined by apperception (the 
contribution the mind makes to the effect of the 
stimulus) as well as by sensation (the direct effect 
of the stimulus). 

515. Mind: faculties; objections to faculty theory. 
— State some of the leading classifications that have been 
made of the fundamental operations of mind. What is 
meant by a mental faculty ? Discuss the objections 
which have been made to the use of this term in psychol- 
ogy. What are the methods of study open to the psy- 
chologist? 

Answer. The usual classification of mental 
operations is Intellect, Feeling and Will. Some of 
the forms of intellect are sensation, perception, ap- 






Questions and Typical Anwers 301 

perception, memory, imagination, association, and 
reason. Feelings, or emotions, are designated as 
anger, fear, love, joy, sympathy, etc. Will in- 
cludes impulse, appetite, desire, etc. According to 
the phrenologists, Gall and Spnrzheim and their 
followers, these different mental operations had a 
particular location on the surface of the brain. 
One's fortune was told by feeling the bumps on the 
cranium. Subsequent investigations have shown 
that the mind is a unit. None of these different 
manifestations, known as faculties, is separated 
from the others. They are all parts of the same 
thing, mind, only showing the different phases of 
the same unit. The term faculty when it implies 
one of the divisions into which the mind is sup- 
posed to be divided is a misnomer. If you destroy 
intellect, you destroy feeling and will. There is no 
thought or act in which these three elements are 
not present, though they may not be present in 
equal proportions. The simple process of solving 
a problem in arithmetic involves the knowing what 
you want to solve, the desire to do so, and the 
actual attempt. 

The methods upon which the psychologist bases 
his knowledge of the different manifestations of 
mental operations are: (1) The biological com- 
parison method in which he compares the nervous 
system of man with the nervous systems found in 
lower forms of animal life; (2) the method of ex- 
perimental extirpation in which certain parts of the 
central nervous system are cut out in the lower 
forms of animal life and the effects noticed; (3) 



302 



The Science of Education 



the method of mechanical stimulation and irration 
in which case parts of the brain are pricked with 
a sharp instrument, or an electrical current is 
passed through them and the effects noticed; (4) 
the natural decay of the nervous system noticed in 
post-mortem cases and comparing these nervous 
changes with the changed actions which took place 
as a result of these cases of paralysis; (5) the 
histogenetic-method which noticed the develop- 
ment of the central nervous system during the va- 
rious stages of its development. This is the least 
satisfactory because its validity depends upon post- 
mortem examinations of individuals at the various 
stages of development. 

History and Principles of Education 

516. According to nature: meaning, corollaries. 
— (a) What do you understand by the statement, "We 
must proceed according to nature"? (b) Give three edu- 
cational corollaries based on this principle, stating how 
each corollary is or may be applied in school zvork. 

Answer, (a) To Rousseau, "Proceeding ac- 
cording to nature" meant to return to nature, to 
get away from books, to live close to the plants, 
streams, trees, etc., to get away from the conven- 
tionalities laid down by society and be free once 
more. To Comenius,, "Proceeding according to 
nature" meant to conduct the educational process 
as you plant seed. Begin in the spring-time. Make 
the conditions favorable, etc. But Rousseau, Co- 
menius, Pestalozzi and Froebel had another mean- 
ing for the expression, "We must proceed accord- 
ing to nature," and this is the present educational 



Questions and Typical Anwers 303 

view. It means that we must proceed according 
to the nature of the child. We can't teach the child 
percentage or proportion before his mind is ready 
to grasp it. The missionary can't convert a heathen 
by preaching abstract sermons to him on truth, 
service, loyalty, etc. He must approach the ab- 
stract by personal, concrete examples of these vir- 
tues, — truth service, loyalty, etc. So the child, to 
know number in the abstract, must first count and 
measure things. 
(a) Corollaries. 

1. Go from the simple to the complex. Show 
that 1 is contained into 2 twice before asking how 
many times Yi is contained into 2. 

2. Experience before rules or definitions. Show 
by having pupils examine carefully a sufficient 
number of sentences that adverbs modify verbs, 
adjectives or other adverbs before asking them to 
formulate a definition.. 

3. Proceed from the known to the related un- 
known. The child knows common fractions. Take 
up decimals which are only another form of frac- 
tions expressed with different symbols. 

517. Locke : treatise, views, criticism. — (a) What 
treatise did Locke write on education? For what im- 
mediate purpose? (b) Name two general points on 
which he laid great stress, (c) Give with reasons, two 
of his suggestions which you think wise, and two which 
you think unwise, (d) Name a writer on education who 
was influenced by Locke, and state one respect wherein 
he was influenced. 



304 The Science of Education 

Answer, (a) Locke's treatise, Thoughts on 
Education, was written for the advice of a friericl. 

(b) 1. His scheme of education concerned 
primarily the sons of gentlemen, not the children of 
the masses. As he believed that virtue and good 
manners were more important than the acquisition 
of knowledge, he strongly advocated instruction by 
a private tutor in preference to the schools of his 
day, because he thought that in the schools the boy 
would be influenced rather by his fellows than by 
the master, and so fail of attaining a high standard 
of good breeding and moral character. 

(b) 2. Physical education, so long neglected, 
was one of the points on which Locke laid the 
greatest stress. "A sound mind in a sound body," 
was his idea of education. He would educate for 
life, not for the university. 

(c) 1. Wise suggestions. His suggestion that 
punishment should be mild and reasonable, that 
the spirit of the child should not be debased and 
enslaved, that the child should be reasoned with in 
the matter of conduct, has become the sound edu- 
cational doctrine of our day and needs no defense. 
Such is the theory of discipline followed in this 
city and it has proved successful in practice. We 
are educating reasonable beings to think and act 
for themselves ; future citizens to govern them- 
selves. The mere suggestion of flogging -a boy to- 
day for a failure in construing a Latin sentence 
would be sufficient to render the teacher liable to 
examination by an alienist. 

(c) 2. Wise suggestions. He further recognized 



Questions and Typical Anwers 305 

the principle that there are certain seasons of 
aptitude and inclination on the part of the pupil; 
that the mind cannot act in season of depression; 
that the teacher should never attempt to force the 
balky will, but lead and stimulate the mind by in- 
terest. This also is sound doctrine to-day. The 
teacher who enters into a contest of wills and tries 
to compel the accomplishment of a certain task, 
say after school, by the sheer exercise of author- 
ity, finds himself and the boy both injured, and his 
purpose defeated. In such a contest as this, often- 
times the boy cannot learn. His mind is dazed and 
cannot act, and the fault lies largely at the teach- 
er's door. Let the teacher be sympathetic and en- 
courage the boy; let him try to guide and lead and 
stimulate ; let him seize upon the boy's times of 
alertness and mental activity, and he will not have 
to do any driving. 

(c) 3. Unzvisc suggestions. Locke's views on 
physical education, sound in the main, are open to 
just criticism where he advocates the "hardening 
process." As Herbert Spencer says, "Many chil- 
dren have been hardened out of the world." Scant 
clothing, perforated shoes and wet feet and irregu- 
lar meals are condemned as much by educators, at 
least since Herbert Spencer wrote on physical edu- 
cation, as they are by the medical profession. The 
reasons are obvious. 

(c) 4. Unzvisc suggestions. Locke's advocacy 
of education by private tutors rather than in the 
schools has not been approved by subsecment edu- 
cational practice. He overestimated the direct in- 



306 The Science of Education 

fluence of the private tutor in forming the mind and 
character of his pupils, and underestimated the in- 
direct influence of the masters of the school. The 
boy is as likely to copy the weaknesses of his tutor 
— and tutors are not infallible — as his strong 
points. Again, the moral atmosphere of many a 
school is determined largely by its masters, e. g.,. 
Dr. Arnold of Rugby. Further, admitting that the 
standard of morality of the average schoolboy is 
not high, Locke failed to catch the point that the 
growing boy must needs be influenced more by the 
fellows than by his elders, just as in after life he 
will be influenced chiefly by his associates of the 
same age. The gulf in age and interests between 
a boy in his teens and his tutor — Rousseau recog- 
nized this fact — is too great to be easily bridged 
On the whole, then, it is better for a boy to be 
educated in school with his fellows than to be 
sheltered and coddled under the wing of a private 
tutor. 

(d) Rousseau was influenced by Locke in the 
direction of physical education. Emile must grow 
up a physically perfect young animal. 

518. Plato, Comenius, Jacotot, Spencer, Rous- 
seau, Milton. — [Answer only tivo of the following five 
points.} State the views (a) of Plato on music in an 
educational scheme; (b) of Comenius or Jacotot, on the 
proper method of teaching a language; (c) of Spencer, on 
the place in education of the study of literature and art; 
(d) of Rousseau, as to discipline; (e) of Milton, as to 
the proper scope of education. ( 16) . 

(b) Jacotot was a French educator of the early 



Questions and Typical Anwers 307 

part of the 19th century. His method of teaching 
a language was largely based on his maxim "All is 
in all." He used Fenelon's Telemachus as the text- 
book. This was memorized by his pupils, and so 
thoroughly mastered that all the pupils needed to 
know of grammar, rhetoric, etc., was based on this 
one piece of literature. In fact, he believed that all 
knowledge of philosophy, history and mathematics 
could be taught by using the Telemachus as a cen- 
ter, thus emphasizing the principle of correlation. 
Repetition was another principle of his method. 
His maxim or paradox "One can teach a language 
not known to him" was based on his own success 
in teaching Dutch children the French language, 
they being entirely unacquainted with that lan- 
guage and he having no knowledge of the Dutch, 
by using the Telemachus as above described. 

(d) Rousseau, a French educator of the 18th 
century, believed in the discipline of natural con- 
sequences. That is, he believed that the best way 
to discipline a child and teach him the difference be- 
tween right and wrong, was to let him suffer the 
natural consequences of his wrong-doing as punish- 
ment. For example, when Emile broke a window. 
he was compelled to stay in the room and suffer 
from cold ; when he did not perform his tasks, he 
was obliged to forego the food that would have 
been secured through the performance of his tasks 
These punishments were to appear to Emile as the 
natural and unavoidable result of his own wrong 
act. 



308 The Science of Education 

519. Realism and naturalism. — Explain meaning 
and show relation to method of teaching. 

As has been said, the latter part of the 16th 
century witnessed an educational movement in 
favor of the study of real things. For many years 
the study of Latin and Greek was the chief means 
of education. Rabelais and others objected to the 
study of Latin and Greek because they said that 
such study was a mere memory process based upon 
words. They directed attention to the study of 
natural objects and thus made the beginning of a 
movement known as realism in education. The 
movement continued during the succeeding years 
and it has broadened to include all forms of nature, 
human and otherwise. The name naturalism be- 
came associated with the movement in the 18th 
century. Naturalism implies subject-matter and 
methods of teaching in accordance with the re- 
quirements of human nature and external physical 
nature. 

520. Give the basic justification for the prominence 
of language studies in the course of study. See Report 
of Com. of Fifteen. 

The justification is found in the fact that lan- 
guage is the instrument that makes possible human 
social organism. — Page 44. 

521. Summarise the suggestions of the Committee of 
Fifteen in regard to the criticism of words rather than 
things in elementary education. 

Place more stress on the internal side of the 
*yord, its meaning; and use better graded steps to 



Questions and Typical Anwers 309 

build up the chain of experience and the train of 
thought that the word expresses. — Pages 45-46. 

522. What is the specific value of technical grammar? 
Technical grammar can never devlop a higher 

and better English style. Only familiarity with 
fine English works will insure one a good and cor- 
rect style. The chief objective advantage of gram- 
mar is that it shows the structure of language, and' 
the logical forms of subject, predicate and modi- 
fier, thus revealing the essential nature of the 
thought itself, the most important of all objects, 
because it is self-object. On the subjective or psy- 
chological side, grammar demonstrates its title to 
the first place by its use as a discipline in subtle 
analysis, in logical division and classification, in the 
art of questioning, and in the mental accomplish- 
ment of making exact definitions. — Page 48. 

523. Do you advise the use of literary masterpieces 
for the purpose of parsing in technical grammar? 

No. Four or five years in the practice of gram- 
matical analysis, practice on literary works of art 
(Milton, Shakespere, Tennyson, Scott) is a train- 
ing of the pupil into habits of indifference, dread 
and neglect of the genius displayed in the literary 
work of art. — Page 49. 



CHAPTER XV 
SETS OF QUESTIONS WITHOUT ANSWERS 

524. For estimating self. — These three sets of 
questions are enough to enable a student to judge 
himself in relation to capacity for adaptation. Fail- 
ure to answer all the questions is considered (a) 
lack of knowledge, or (b) lack of executive fitness. 
Why called executive? 

Examination in 1906. Time, 2 hours. 

525. Give the meaning of the following: sug- 
gestion, attention, imagination, apperception, re- 
naissance, humanism, realism. (21). 

526. (a) What is it to generalize? 

(b) What is the use of generalizing? 

(c) What are the chief obstacles to correct gen- 
eralizing? 

(d) How, in your specialty,, may the power to 
generalize be developed? (16). 

527. Enumerate the conditions under which 
habits may be most effectively formed. Illustrate 
from high school work. (16). 

528. "The interpretation of education from 
the point of interest is as partial as the old inter- 
pretation of education as discipline. * * * The 
present tendency is one of reconciliation, or har- 
monization, or interest and effort, as a basis of edu- 
cational practice." 

310 



Sets of Questions Without Answers 311 

(a) Show that these two interpretations are 
partial. 

(b) Show how they can be reconciled. 

(c) Show from high school work in your 
specialty. 

529. Discuss the following: 

"The world is still governed by sentiment, and 
not by observation, acquisition, and reasoning; 
and national greatness and righteousness depend 
more on the cultivation of right sentiments in chil- 
dren than on anything else." — President Eliot. 

530. Give a brief account of any two of the fol- 
lowing: 

The Academy of Athens. 

Monasticism. 

The work of Charles the Great for education. 

Jesuit schools. 

English "public schools." 

The report of the "Committee of Ten." 

Examination in 1908. 

531. (a) What is habit? 

(b) State two principles underlying habit. (6). 

(c) Show how these may be applied to your 
specialty. (6). 

532. (a) Define reasoning. 

(b) State in the form of general rule how pupils 
may be trained to reason. 

(c) Illustrate the application to your subject. (15) 
533- ( a ) What is "mind wandering?" 

(b) What are the causes? 

(c) How may it be overcome? (12). 



312 



The Science of Education 



534. State various purposes for which question- 
ing is used in teaching. (15). 

535- By what means is attention in class se- 
cured when but one pupil at a time is making reci- 
tation? (12). 

536. (a) State difference between inhibition 
"by repression" and "by substitution." (16). 

(b) Apply to high school discipline. 

537. Give four rules (maxims) to bear in mind 
when assigning advanced lessons. (15). 



Examination in 19 10. 

538. All nervous centers have then, in the first 
instance, one essential function, that of intelligent 
action. They feel, prefer one thing to another, and 
have "ends." Like all other organs, however, they 
evolve from ancestor to descendant,, and then 
evolution takes two directions, the lower centers 
passing" downwards into more unhesitating autom- 
atism, and the higher ones upward into larger 
intellectuality. — James. 

Define and illustrate meaning of nervous centers, 
lower centers, higher centers, intelligent action, 
automatism. (15). 

539. Education is the superior adjustment of a 
hitman being to his environment. — Home. 

(a) Explain this definition, especially environ- 
ment. 

(b) What part does your speciality play in this 
environment. (15)- 



Sets of Questions Without Answers 313 

540. The greatest word in education is Interest. 
— Schurman. 

(a) Discuss this statement. 

(b) Explain the part of interest in your spe- 
cialty (or how you would get interest in your 
specialty). (24). 

541. Discuss the use of incentives in high 
schools. (15). 

542. State and illustrate four common mistakes 
in questioning before a class, and illustrate how to 
avoid each. (16). 

543. Describe briefly one of the following: 
Socratic Teaching. 

Work of Comenius. 
Rousseau's Emile. 

The Chapter on Intellectual Education in Spen- 
cer's Education. (15). 






314 



The Science of Education 



CHAPTER XVI 



QUESTIONS FOR WRITTEN ANSWERS 

544. There is but little assured value in any 
educational course for teachers unless such teach- 
ers make a practical application of the theories 
which they will advocate as approved modes in the 
education of children. Self-activity, apperception, 
reaction, self-realization, — these will remain vague 
concepts unless students utilize their own motor 
activities in writing. The following questions are 
offered, therefore, as worthy tests of your effort. 

545. Define education. 

546. Name seven ideals in the history of edu- 
cation. Which one is the most comprehensive? 
Give reason for your choice. 

547. Define and illustrate correlation, co-ordi- 
nation, concentration, and enrichment as applied to 
a course of study.. 

548. Describe the Socratic method and state its 
limitations. 

549. Give advantages and disadvantages of the 
topical methods. Illustrate by using your specialty. 

550. Briefly discuss general method under these 
headings : 

1. Meaning.. 

2. Justification. 

3. Limitations. 

4. Application. 



Questions for Written Answers 315 

551. What is the meaning of each of the follow- 
ing terms as applied to education : 

(a) Spencer's complete living; 

(b) Herbart's many-sided interest; 

(c) Dewey's social stimulus; 

(d) Pestalozzi's generation of power; 

(e) Butler's inheritance of the race? 

552. What practical help may be drawn from 
the culture epoch theory? 

553- (a) Define interest in the educational sense, 
(b) Enumerate five ways of securing interest in 
school organization, i. e., developing a good school 
spirit. (Consult Methods in Education, abbreviated 
M., p. 54). 

554. Voluntary attention is a power developed 
by many acts of attention, — the result of habitua- 
tion. Tell how you present a lesson in your spe- 
cialty in accordance with this opinion. 

555. Three laws underlying habit are plasticity, 
motive, regular repetition. Show bearing of these 
laws on teaching a specified topic. Mention five 
kinds of drill to secure accuracy in your specialty. 

556. In speaking of training the memory, we 
have the terms apprehension, retention and repro- 
duction ; association by similarity and contiguity. 
Illustrate the first three in teaching. State the law 
of contiguity. 

557. Explain inhibition by repression, inhibi- 
tion by substitution. Apply to cheating on ex- 
amination. 

558. Name five school virtues that should be 
substituted respectively for five school vices, and 



316 The Science of EDUCAfiott 

explain your method of inhibiting by substitution. 

559. What is your interpretation of the term 
general method? Show how it embodies the in- 
ductive-deductive method, method-whole, from 
particular to general, and from concrete to abstract. 
What is its relation to the apperceptive process? 

560. Explain and illustrate (a) apperceiving 
mass or group, (b) reaction in psychology, (c) arti- 
ficial incentives. 

561. Define apperception. 

562. Induction, deduction and analogy are men- 
tioned under kinds of reasoning. State briefly the 
specific uses of each. 

563. (a) What do you understand by the state- 
ment, "We must proceed according to nature"? 
(b) Give three educational corrollaries based on 
this principle, stating how each corrollary is or 
may be applied in school work. 

564. Define habit. 

565. Jacotot said: "All human beings are equally 
capable of learning. Everyone can teach ; and, 
moreover, can teach what he does not know him- 
self." 

Discuss this quotation briefly. Quote your own 
experience as reasons for your opinions. 

566. Give arguments for and against the assign- 
ment of home study. 

567. Much is said about habituation to right 
thinking and willing. Show its application (a) in 
teaching punctuality; (b) in teaching pupils how 
to study; (c) in overcoming cheating on examina- 
tions. 



Questions for Written Answers 317 



568. "What is the relation between attention 
and interest? Mention five of your devices to 
arouse and sustain interest in the recitation. 

569. Mention, with reason, three specific values 
of the study of your specialty. 

570. "American teaching in school and college 
1ms been chiefly driving and judging; it ought to 
be leading and inspiring" (President Eliot). Give, 
with reasons, your opinion as to the truth of these 
two statements, illustrating each kind of teaching. 
Show how teaching can be made to conform to the 
ideal stated. 

571. Outline the arguments for manual train- 
ing in the elementary schools, under the heads (1) 
value to the individual, and (2) value to society. 

572. Discuss the educational value, and name 
the main principles of the kindergarten; or sketch 
the history of the manual training movement. 

573. Explain and illustrate the following terms: 
(a) Visualization. 

'(b) Verbal memory. 
(e) Constructive imagination. 
(</) Connotation of terms. (16). 

574. ((7) Describe three symptoms of brain 
fatigue in children. (6). 

(b) Give, with reasons, three ways for avoiding 
such fatigue. (6). 

575. Explain any two of the following: 

(a) The place of music in Greek education (in- 
cluding the meaning of the term music). 

(b) Froebel's ideas of development and his 
principle of self-activity. 



318 The Science of Education 

(c) Herbart's doctrine of interest. 

576. Give at least two principles governing 
promotion of pupils. 

577- ( a ) Define punishment. (b) What are 
the advantages and the disadvantages of natural 
punishment? 

578. Define abstraction, socialization, adoles- 
cence, suggestion, motivation, self-realization. 

579. Distinguish instructing, teaching, educat- 
ing, functioning. 

580. "Every faculty during the period of its 
greatest activity is capable of receiving more vivid 
impressions than any other period." — Spencer. 

Express in a statement — 

(a) The principle implied in the expression, 
"Every faculty during the period of its greatest 
activity." (1). 

(b) Illustrate this principle from the develop- 
ment of a child in the elementary school period; in 
the high school period. (10). 

(c) Mention two educational corollaries that 
may be drawn from the principle. (10). 

581. (a) What is meant by the cultivation or 
development of the power of observation? (5). 

(b) Show, by giving directions and illustrations, 
how the power of observation may be developed 
or trained — 

(1) In general ; (5) 

(2) In your specialty. (5) 

582. "In each branch of instruction we should 
proceed from the empirical to the rational." 



Questions for Written Answers 319 

Explain and illustrate. Give reasons for reject- 
ing this principle. (20) 

583. Give, for each of the following, two im- 
portant and distinctive principles regarding educa- 
tion enunciated by him : (20) 

Herbert Spencer, 
John Locke, 
Friedrich Froebel. 

584. (a) What is habit? Illustrate, (b) Men- 
tion two important conditions that tend to fix 
habits. Illustrate, (c) Mention one advantage of 
habit, and one disadvantage. Illustrate. 

585. "Rabelais, Montaigne,, Locke, Rousseau 
form a succession." 

(a) Give reasons for this statement, naming two 
important principles which these writers held in 
common. 

(b) Name one distinctive feature in the educa- 
tional theory of each. (1) 

586. "It is due to a * * * prejudice, in- 
herited from antiquity, against these arts (i. e., the 
material or manual arts) that their great educa- 
tional value has not been seen. This value is three- 
fold : * * * " — Thomas Davidson. 

(a) Discuss the view T presented in the first sen- 
tence of the quotation. 

(b) What do you understand to be the three- 
fold educational value of these arts? 

587. All instruction must be individual instruc- 
tion. To teach a class is to teach the individuals 
composing it, and not some substituted abstraction. 



320 The Science of Education 

It is possible to form a class so that the needs of 
each member may be as fully met as if each had 
his own teacher. Quite a. wide range of ability, 
especially in upper classes, is consistent with in- 
dividual instruction in classes. Absolute uniformity 
is necessary only for those teachers who force 
pupils to square-inch text-book results ; but the 
teacher who puts flexible and living problems to 
the class may engage strong pupils to their utmost 
capacity, while the weakest work to advantage. — 
Tompkins, Management, p. 112. 

Can class instruction and individual 'instruction 
.be distinguished? Interpret the excerpt and then 
criticise it favorably or adversely. 

588. "The * * * High School period is 
the period in which the transition is made from 
boyhood and girlhood to manhood and woman- 
hood, when new feelings and interests are awak- 
ened and come with a kind of surprise, when both 
youth and maiden find themselves in a new world, 
for which their training and habits have hardly 
prepared them, and in which, therefore, they are 
most liable to go astray, unless proper precaution 
be taken. The leading characteristics of all the 
studies of this period should be vigor, calling for a 
strong exercise of will, and a good deal of energetic 
emotion." — Thomas Davidson. 

Explain and discuss the two points in this quota- 
tion briefly giving your own view of the character- 
istics of pupils in the High School period, and of 
the work to be done in it. 



Questions for Written Answers 321 

589. "Mere verbal statements, made and heard 
as such, do not constitute real teaching in any sub- 
ject. * * * Real teaching aims at the develop- 
ment of mind in relation to the subject matter." — 
Bryant. 

(a) Give a reason for the truth of each of these 
statements. (6) 

(b) Explain the second statement with illustra- 
tion. (10) 

590. (a) What is the meaning of the term 
"judgment" as used in psychology? Illustrate, (b) 
What is meant by "good judgment" as the term is 
commonly used? (c) Give two illustrations of the 
developing of good judgment in school, explaining 
how good judgment is developed in each case. 

591. Describe and illustrate the teacher's use 
of the principle of logical association of ideas for 
fixing knowledge in the memory. (15) 

592. "The teacher must think of his subject not 
a body of facts to be acquired, but as a mental 
habit or attitude to be cultivated." 

Discuss this dictum, explaining the terms used. 
Illustrate its application to your specialty. 

593- (°) Describe the manner in which the 
mind forms general concepts, illustrating from 
your specialty. (15) 

(1) State three conditions to be borne in mind 
by the teacher as aids in the formation of general 
concepts. (15) 

594. "Education is the process of making in- 
dividual men participators in the best attainments 
of the human mind in general ; namely, in that 



322 The Science of Education 

which is most rational, true, beautiful and good." — 
Whewell. 

"The educational end, as I conceive it, might 
now be stated thus: Right judgment, and a habit 
of good action under a sense of duty, accompanied 
by a comprehension of the spiritual significance of 
nature and man." — Laurie. 

(a) Contrast these two statements in respect to 
their point of view. (7) 

(b) Briefly explain and illustrate each of the fol- 
lowing terms as here used: (1) Right judgment. 
(2) (2) A habit of action under a sense of duty. 
(2) (3) A comprehension of the spiritual sig- 
nificance of nature and man. (2) (c) Criticise, 
with reasons, any point in either section. (7) 

595. Distinguish instinct and habit. Make a 
list of eight instincts to be observed in educational 
work. 

596. Define definition. (See logic). 

597. What is meant by intention of terms and 
extension of terms? 

598. Illustrate logical division or classification. 

599. Define fallacy, mediate inference, logic. 

600. What is the relation of habit to education ? 



INDEX 

References are to pages. 



A 

Abstraction 103, 206 

According to nature 302 

Action 

ideo-motor 104 

kinds 236-240 

reaction 104 

reflex 104 

Adaptation 14 

Adolescence 105-120, 279-283 

Affiliated interests 32, 265 

Analogy 128, 207 

Apperception 77, 207, 231-234 

and interest 80 

defined 77 

Gordy quoted ' 79 

importance 77 

processes 79 

synthetic 78 

Assignment of lessons 263 

Assimilation 207 

Association of ideas 254 

Attention 65, 222-226 



B 



Bagley on habit 

Baldwin on teaching 

Balliett on manual training 

high schools 

Batavia plan 

Brooks 

on instructing 

on teaching 



95 
120 

139 
168 

121 
120 



Butler 

education defined 14 

evidences of education.... 201 

quoted 198 

C 

Character 4, 15 

Circle of thought 71, 207 

Clearness 208 

Comenius 306 

Commercial education 137 

Compayre on instruction.... 121 

Complete living 14 

Concentration 

course of study 43 

mental 103 

Concept 

conception 102 

defined 102 

classification 128, 255-258 

Concert recitation 278 

Concrete methods 217, 241 

Consciousness 98 

Corporal punishment 173 

Correlation 42, 192, 240, 241 

Course of study 36 

arrangement 38 

characteristics 41 

elective 288 

meaning 36 

principles of 37 

specialization 288 

Cramming 270 

Culture 

aim in high school 185 

defined 218 

ideal 4 

Culture epoch theory..26, 192, 218 



323 



324 



INDEX 



D 

Deduction 128 

Definitions in psychology.... 98 

De Gar mo 

course of study 39 

formal culture 30 

Dewey 

course of study 40 

definition of education.... 14 

interest 72 

social service 21 

Discipline 

defined 122 

formal 30 

mental 212 

Discovery by pupil 276 

E 

Earhart on study 124 

Education 

affiliated interests 29 

aspects of 20 

commercial .\... 137 

definitions ...» 7-18 

eclectic conception 14 

etymology 3 

factors in 33 

in answers 194-206 

ideals in 4 

manual 139 

meaning 3-20 

military 142 

organization needed .... 35 

Efficiency -.4, IS 

Emulation 283 

Evolution 24 

F 

Faculty 

defined 99 

development 103 

theory 300 

Fatigue 130-1 37 

• causes 133 

discussed ...., 285 

meaning 132 

signs 133 



Faunce on modern educa- 
tion „ 145 

Feeling 

and intellect 234 

defined 99 

Formal discipline 30 

Formal s.eps of instruc- 
tion 55, 193 

Fraternities 146 

Freedom 

in management 148 

in teaching 185 

Froebel 189 

G 

Generalization 55 

General method 54 

formal steps 55 

generalization 55 

method-whole 55 

Gordy 

apperception 79 

criticism of Dewey 22 

interest 69 

Grading 166 

H 

Habit 93 

and education 93 

and instinct 86-98 

defined 94 

habituation 103 

how to form 95 

laws 94 

list 94 

principles 235 

Hailman on education 197 

Harmonious development—. 209 

Harmonization 16 

Harris 

course of study 41 

definition of education.. 15 

specialization 290 

Hathaway on teaching 121 

Herbart 

circle of thought 71 

interest 70 

method-whole 55 



INDEX 



325 



Hervey 

examination of teachers 158 

general method 57 

Hinsdale 

on apperception 78 

on teaching 121 

History of education 

according to nature 302 

complete living 16 

Froebel 189 

humanism 193, 218 

ideals in 3 

Jacotot 306 

Locke 303 

Peslatozzi 188 

Plato 306 

Rousseau. 23, 187, 306 

scholasticism 219 

Spencer 14, 194, 306 

Hoose on teaching 121, 125 

Home 

aspects of education 20 

definition of education.. 15 

habit 95 

instincts 92 

interest 73 

Howerth on psychology 293 

Humanism 193, 218 

I 

Imagination 

defined 102 

discussed 245-248 

image 209 

importance 182 

kinds 127 

Imitation 209, 218 

Impression 249 

Induction 128, 218, 241, 262 

Infancy, period of 26 

Informing: defined 126 

Inhibition 89, 209 

Instinct 

aim in treating 89 

and habit 86 

defined 86 

desirable 88 

disuse 89 



human : 86 

inhibition 89 

list 88 

pugnacity desirable 91 

repression 91 

substitution 90 

Instructing defined 121 

Interest 68, 180 

an aim 184 

and activity 226 

and effort 73 

and literature 229 

circle of thought 71 

Dewey's doctrine 72 

Herbartian 70 

Home's view 73 

James cited 73 

many-sided 21] 

native to acquired 227 

securing 76 

Intuition 220 

J 

Jacotot 306 

James 

attention 66 

habit 95 

interest and effort 74 

mind-wandering 104 

pugnacity is pood 91 

use of pychology 296 

Judgment 

and conception 260 

defined 102 

kinds 128 

K 

Knowing defined 99 

L 

La Fetra on fatigue 130, 285 

Language study 308 

Lamed on military training 142 

Laurie on teaching 121 

Learning 

defined 124 

through self-activity 210 



326 



INDEX 



Locke 303 

Logic 

logical memory 210 

terms to be defined 128 

M 

Mac Vannel 

culture epochs 29 

educative process 20 

evolution 25 

on Dewey 40 

Manual training 

manumental training .... 211 

meaning 191 

schools 139 

McMurry on study 123 

Marking papers 268 

Maxwell 

education defined 15 

examination of teachers 155 

list of habits 94 

school management 148 

specialization 288 

Memory 

association of ideas 254 

defined _ 101 

impression 249 

kinds 127 

laws 127 

logical 210 

recollection 249 

repetition 250 

serviceable 253 

Methods of teaching 49 

and mind 51 

and science of education 49 

classification 51 

general method 54 

heuristic 261 

topical 52 

Method-whole 55, 212 

Mill on happiness 202 

Milton 306 

Mind 

abstraction 255 

defined 99 

faculties 300 

laws of 298 



meeting of 17 

rriind-wandering..l04, 258, 259 

Monroe 

education defined 16 

on methods 50 

Motivation 104 

N 

Naturalism 308 

Notebooks 267 

Notion 

formation and kinds. ...255-258 

general 103 

particular 102 

O 

Observation defined 101 

P 

Perception 

defined 100 

outline 127 

Pestalozzi 188 

Plato 306 

Power, an aim 181 

Principles of education 63 

apperception 77 

attention 65-68 

interest 68 

maxims 64 

meaning 63 

self-activity 81 

Promotion 166 

Psychology 

and child study 295 

and teaching 296 

correlation 296 

definitions 98 

development 293 

history 292 

measurement in 297 

outline of terms 126 

Pueblo plan 167 

Punishment discussed 291 

Q 

Questions 

approved answers 180 



INDEX 



327 



for written answers 314 

typical answers 194 

without answers 310 

Questioning 241 

R 

Reaction 104, 213 

Realism 6, 308 

Reasoning 

denned 102 

kinds 128 

Recapitulation theory 29 

Recitation 163, 181 

Roark 

correlation 43 

instruction 121 

interest 75 

Rousseau 

discipline 306 

innovator 187 

sources of education 23 

Rowe on habit 95 

S 

Scholasticism 218 

School management 148 

Batavia plan 168 

estimating teachers 149 

examinations 155 

grading 166 

group teaching 165 

home lessons 172 

punishment 173 

principles 148 

promotion 166 

recitation 163 

self-government 175 

tests of fitness of teach- 
ers 162 

Science, influence of 189 

Self-activity 81, 210 

denned .. 81 

opportunities for 82 

substitution 83 

Self-government 175 

Self-realization 15, 213 

Sensation 

and perception 244 

defined 100, 214 

kinds 126 

Sheppard on commercial 

education 137 



Socialization 70, 214 

Social stimulus 215 

Specialization 288 

Spencer 

education defined 14 

literature and art 306 

quoted 194 

Studv 

aft of 271 

defined 123 

home 274, 275 

Substitution 83 

Suggestion ...103, 216, 220, 284 

Sully on training 122 

Syllogism 216 



Teaching 

defined 120 

group 165 

individual 165 

Tilings before words 217 

Thorndike 

instincts 88, 89 

self-activity 83 

Tompkins 

concentration 44 

punishment 174 

Training 

defined 122 

manumental 211 

V 

Variety 241 

Visualization 

defined 104, 217 

W 

White 

list of habits 94 

study defined 123 

virtues 94 

Written work, abuse 267 

Will 

balky 242 

defined 99 

training 243 

Wilson, Woodrow 

education defined 17 



MAR 22 1912 



